Introduction
Advertising is a big affair nowadays. Despite it was used as a means for promoting products for years, as the history of advertising has started a long ago, nowadays it has become a product also, which a consumer can order and buy according to his taste, and according to the objective he is seeking to pursue. The first thing the consumer might be concerned about is OTS (opportunities to see) his advertisement and from this point, he chooses which source he will use for the advertisement, the method, and techniques, specially developed for different audiences. Intriguingly, advertising has turned up to be a whole science with a vast area for studying: the cultural, gender, different people-oriented aspects, which are studied carefully to increase the quality of advertisements.
Main body
The copywriters, who have an idea about marketing and advertising can make one by the same product four times more expensive than that, which has not been advertised, and still make people boast and feel like they won a 1,000,000 lottery, or they can make one buy a useless knick-knack and bring it home to the purchaser, that he will not be able to live without this thing. The advertising industry has spread out so widely, that it applies to every aspect of human life. Day in day out the advertisements make people buy something. The advertisement, chosen for the essay is a proving example of the above said. It penetrates insight into the head of a potential consumer, making him another victim of the good art of advertising.
Firstly, this advertisement wins the consumer with the unusual holiday atmosphere it creates. The Santa Clause, running against the white background is semicovered by the plate, which says “Thanksgiving specials”. How come that these two, seemingly different holidays are united in one table of the advertisement? The answer is plain – to create the atmosphere of the holiday, they organized both within the ad. It might seem strange to someone, that the holiday of thanksgiving is represented by the Santa and ear-ring instead of turkey. But think, Christmas is the favorite holiday for most of the people including both children and adults. Christmas evokes the beautiful feelings of the holiday, which is still in store this year. Nevertheless, the mentioned thanksgiving is already gone. Consequently, it is time to smoothly proceed from one holiday to another, as Santa is still being half-covered. What do the copywriters do? – They write a table, which says “Thanksgiving sale”, but the stuff, everything but turkeys, reminding of the recently washed up pile of dishes, namely jewelry, which reminds women of their natural desire to be beautiful and outstanding. The atmosphere, created by simply looking at the picture, not getting into details of the ad, is festive and bright.
The second thing, which attracts to the advertisement, is a good symbolic design, with the important details that stand out, used here. The organization of the text, text color, picture, showpieces, and free space fascinates and gives a further understanding of the purpose of the ad. The put-together Caps Locked red text “Sale”, clock, framed in red and Santa, clothed in a classic suit go together really well. They make up a “red line” or a special line, which stands out against everything else in the advertised text. The clock here might be used as a symbol, meaning “take your time” and buy stuff, but it must be the symbol to the following statement “mind the time, it flies”. The claimed 5 o’clock means, that it is still not late to come and buy something, which is so cheap only today and for you only. The free space on the other hand is also functional in the ad, it is left white with the purpose to make everything colored in the picture be more contrasting and consequently more noticeable.
Thirdly, the cultural context is also considered, here the typical American-oriented ad is being presented. It is anything but a secret, that the culture plays an essential role in the organization of the copy, in the length of sentences, in the usage or omitting the words at all. While Europe is after glamorous and posh ads with almost no words included, America seeks for rather a plain image with more text included, one might say more meaningful ads. The words, used in the ad are all very essential. There is no spare word or lack of them. They are designed to appeal to the reader, who is going to digest the information. What people would love about this advertisement is that the words used in it are categorized and well-categorized. They are used in columns, such as the gender-age column, followed by the accessories section and a practical column, referring to different categories as home and products for specific spheres, making it easy to find what one wants in particular. And again, things, used in the ad are extremely important, so copywriters emphasize it by using bold type for the additional reminder. Furthermore, Thanksgiving Day is an American holiday and Santa is an American St. Nikolas, Father Frost, etc., so the advertisement is only America-oriented. Thanksgiving Day appeals both to the history of the country and its culture, giving a context of them and consequently turning him to go take his credit card to buy something, which is being sold in the context. Analyzing the correlation of the text and images, text wins, which is another proof for being an American ad. And the text is not just an arrangement of words, but rather a transitional and smooth bringing, which leads one to buy.
The effect it produces is winning the buyer. All the smallest details are directed to attract, entice, and finally win the buyer. In this world the ability to be competitive is very important, so the means to win the extra space in the market diagram are getting more and more refined.
Conclusion
Concluding, it is necessary to state that the art of advertising is getting more and more sophisticated with each day and it further opens the vast areas for studies such as consumers’ culture, the context, which can be used within the ad, miscellaneous image and design techniques to win the buyer, desires of buyers, such as what would they prefer to see or to read in the advertisement. The given advertisement wins its potential buyers in creating the atmosphere of the holiday, which strikes and overwhelms, then it is arranged in a good and symbolic design, failing to notice the symbols, the reader of the ad is still being psychedelically influenced by the ad. Next, it is arranged in a cultural context, giving the people it applies to, namely Americans all they would wish to see in the ad. Practically everything in the ad has its purpose and function starting with the image, organization, and correlation of the text and finishing with the free space, which also has its function. Sticking to the rules of the science of advertising, copywriters managed to make a great piece of art.