Magazine advert analysis

Magazine Analysis

What is the purpose of a magazine advert?

A magazine advert is a particular section in a magazine that is dedicated to advertise something, for sale or to promote its cause. In the case of music it usually is to sell the music, or promote the artist/band to its target audience. The only useful way that the music, artist or band will be easily promoted to its target audience is if they use the correct magazine to advertise within. This means the song genre should match the magazine. However one of the main reasons for a magazine advert is to create awareness of an artist

Analyse the following magazine advert.

The image of Plan B is a mid shot which allows the audience to see more than just his face. The mid shot allows the audience to focus on his costume and iconography as well as his facial expressions. Within his image he is holding a microphone on a stand which is also visible and this could be shown to let the audience know that it is his passion to sing. On top of the artists image is a text his name written in big writing. This allows the audience to focus on his level of importance within this magazine advert as his name stands out. Therefore it becomes clear to the audience that the magazine advert is trying to promote the artist.

The artist Plan B has been represented in an unusual way as his identity in his magazine advert has been slightly  hidden. He is shown as a dark shadow, however his clothes are quite visible, this could be due to the fact that it shows off his style which appears as very smart, slick and also shows him of as quite a high class. The fact that he is wearing a suit and tie slightly gives of the impression that he thinks extremely highly of himself as a person and he come across as very confident.

The colors used within this magazine advert consists of black, red and white. The red could be used to passion and love as his album that he released was based around love. This is shown from his main song "She said".  However the use of dark colors, for example, black, is usually used to connote sadness, darkness and in some cases, death. This shows a great contrast as it keeps the audience stuck in two minds, Seeing as his picture is very serious, it leaves them thinking whether its to do with death or love. 

This analysis of Plan B's magazine advert will help me when creating my own magazine advert because it has helped me highlight all the important conventions of a pop genre. When i will create my own magazine advert, i will include a large image of the artist on the left hand corner of a page and cards burning on the right. I will be using a plain black background as it highlights the artists image a lot more.This allows the audience to focus more on the image of the artist then other things going on around him. I will be using plain white text to write the artists name above which will be simple and straight forward to show that the artist is an ordinary man.