Research: Magazine Adverts

For the first of my ancillary texts, I have decided to create a magazine advert that promotes my artist’s new album.Before I create it, I researched some other examples of magazine adverts in order to gain an insight into what mine should look like.

The first advert I have decided to analyse is the Electric Light Orchestra’s A New World Record. This is particularly old and plain in comparison to some of the more contemporary examples, but I wanted to take a look at an example advert that actually helped to lay the foundations for future magazine adverts.This advert is most useful for identifying the components and conventions of magazine adverts.

1) ELO – A New World Record

Record label ident

Artist name

Album name

Examples of singles

Consistent visual theme

This advert is not very colourful (since in 1976 when the advert was released, magazines were rare and printed in black and white) but the bare codes and conventions of magazine adverts are still there. The advert gives a basic amount of information as to not startle or overwhelm the reader. There is not very much text and the visual theme on the magazine advert is the same theme that is carried through on the digipack for the CD and for anything else that the ELO release.

This more modern magazine advert was launched in 2009 and advertised the release of The Boy Who Knew Too Much, MIKA’s second album. It follows a very similar ‘vibe’ to my music video and so decided it would be a great one to see if I can pick up any handy hints and tips!

2) MIKA – The Boy Who Knew Too Much

The poster follows a very similar theme to the album cover. This consistent theming makes MIKA’s work very identifiable.

The artist name is the largest piece of text on the advert. This can also be said for the ELO advert.

The album name is written clearly so that it is obvious to the audience. This is slightly different to the ELO advert; the actual album name was a lot less obvious since it was written in a sentence.

There is a release date for the album. It is not the most prominent component of the advert but is still clear. It follows the same style as the rest of the advert but is written in a different style to the artist and album name.

There are examples of singles that you will find on the album.

There is a link to the website for the artist. This is a more modern element since websites are becoming so popular.

There is a record label ident. This seems to be a lot less obvious than it was on the ELO advert.

DesignThe actual design of the advert is relatively complex in comparison to the ELO advertisement. The advert is reflective of the genre of music that it is promoting, which in this case is pop music. The background is very ‘busy’ and colourful, which I think is an advantage when considering the more ‘eye-catching’ elements of the advert, but is less ideal when looking at how it makes the text ever so slightly more difficult to spot quickly and read easily.The album and artist name is completely separate from the additional information on the advert, which is smaller and more discreet. The important part (the album and artist name) is nearer the top of the advert as well. This is because people who are interested in the album will be the ones more in need of the additional information and so will naturally read all the way to the bottom. The design is completely consistent to the album cover as well. In fact, it actually uses the same background on the advert as it does on the album. This develops a certain artist image.

How can I be inspired by this advert?I think that the actual colourfulness of the advert is essential when trying to promote a very happy, cheery song like Mr. Blue Sky. However, I do not like how overwhelmingly ‘busy’ the advert looks. Although it should be eye-catching and not look empty, I feel like this advert looks a little too full and makes the poster look slightly confusing upon first glance. One thing that I particularly like, however, is how easy the text down the bottom is to read when it has such a contrasted background. Although I am not intending on using black as my background, I will bare in mind to use a colour that completely contrasts the colour of my background. I love the logo and the artist and album name are in the same font, except the artist name is larger and has a slightly different effect on it to make it look 3D. I definitely want to do something like this with my advert.

This advert is from 2012 and advertises Nicki Minaj’s second album, Pink Friday Roman Reloaded.I chose to analyse this advert since I was interested to see if it had any similarities to MIKA, who is also a pop artist.

3) Nicki Minaj – Pink Friday Roman Reloaded

The artist name is, again, bigger than anything else on the page.

There is a picture of the artist. This is something that has not been included on any of the other adverts I have looked at. My theory is that it is because she is a female and it encourages male gaze.The artist is included on some other magazine adverts featuring females.

Again, the album name is smaller but still prominent on the page.

There is a website that readers can go to. It is even larger than the website that was in 2009, indicating that over the years the Internet became an even more popular source of information.

The record label ident is still on the advert but is again quite small.