Evaluation of Advertising

Evaluation of Advertising

Glamour Fashion and Beauty

Fashion and beauty are terms that have been used in advertisements in many magazines globally. Glamour is one of the women’s magazines, and it was published by Conde Nast publication. It was founded in 1939 in the United States but it was by then known as Glamour of Hollywood. It has now been published in diverse countries including Sweden, France, the United Kingdom, Italy and many other countries. The magazine is printed and published monthly. It reveals a variety of women’s fashion and beauty items, which aims to capture the attention of women. The objective of the magazine is to recognize women in the eyes of the public. They organize awards in each year in order to identify a Glamour woman and recognize her in the public eye. Thus, the Glamour Fashion and Beauty adverts have an emotional appeal especially the need for sex that captures the attention of women.

The advertisement, Fashion and Beauty in the Glamour magazine targets women. It specifically targets young women starting from the age of eighteen years to about thirty-five years. Mostly, this advertisement aims specifically at women from a high social class because it reveals diverse fashions of beautiful clothes, which have prices tagged for each fashion. It reveals different cosmetics and jewelries of different fashions, some of which are expensive and can be only afforded by women of high economic status level. The Glamour magazine targets educated women who know how to design fashion for a specific occasion. The elements used in pointing out different groups of women include the use of graphic designs. There are diverse graphical designs used in differentiating the kind of fashion, which best suits women of different categories including those who are slim or fat, short or tall.

In addition, in the cover page, the word Glamour is written in big letters, which is followed by the words fashion and beauty. These letters have been written in large font size, which immediately attracts the attention of the reader. The outer cover has a well-designed picture of a woman dressed in nice fashion clothes and in each side, there are some small letters written in small fonts but decorated with different colors (Glamour 2010). This gives a clear impression thus making the reader to be curious of what is inside. Moreover, the picture portrays a beautiful woman smiling and dressed in style, which impresses the audience. Some techniques and factors used in persuading women to purchase the products are interpreted differently by some people. This is because some factors used especially the use of certain colors and even fonts might not attract some women thus discouraging them from looking at the advert.

The fashion and beauty advert is designed in a way that targets women of different age brackets, different income levels as well as social groups. This is because of the way the Glamour magazine tries to use a discrete fashion with some messages for each kind of fashion. This is the main appeal to the targeted audience because of its subtle emotional and strong visual approach. Many consumers especially women who love fashion and beauty are familiar with the Glamour magazine because it provides them with all the information needed on fashion. This is because, from inside, it has diverse things that women want such as outfits for their bodies, ways of reducing body weight, eating and drinking habits for keeping the body fit as well as secrets to  a beautiful face.

The fashion and beauty advert attempts to reach the audience through using humor in order to capture the interest of the audience. Humor is achieved in the advert through the designing pictures of beautiful women dressed in tight clothes, which makes them to appear sexy. This humor attracts consumers thus bringing the products into the spotlight. Humor is used as the tact of persuasive advertising technique through which the company advertising the products captures the attention of the audience. Another method used in creating humor is the use of slogans and weasel words. The use of words such as ‘shoes that are flying off the shelves’ and ‘run away with beauty’ are some of the weasel words that make the reader to be curious thus encouraging them into using the products.

The graphics are used in a way that helps in executing the message of advertisement. Thematic approach is used in advertising messages and product categories interact with executional factors in influencing the consumers. There are varieties of product color matrixes used in highlighting different products. The color adds a metaphor of color in order to highlight the meaning of the products. The stimulation, safety and disparagement graphics based on the humor mechanism with subtle cues communicates the message more effectively to the audience. In addition, the magazine print is styled in a way that makes the reader to be curious of reading it. This is because it is decorated from outside using appealing colors with different words written in styles from outside such as fashion, beauty and hair, life, love and sex as well as dos and don’ts. These words assist in executing the advertisement message and emotional appeals.

Jib Fowles focuses on the ways advertisements work through examining the emotional as well as sub-rational appeals employed when making advertisements. According to Petracca and Madeleine (334), organizations try to find the way into the mind of the consumers using the emotional appeal. Fowles describes the fifteen emotional appeals that advertisements exploit such as the need for sex, affiliation, prominence, dominate,  nurture, aggress, achieve, dominate, attention, autonomy, escape, satisfy curiosity, feel safe, aesthetic sensation needs and physiological needs that include food, drink and sleep (Fowles 510). Thus, the main appeal in the Glamour fashion and beauty advert is the need for sex, attention and physiological needs. One of the elements that connect with the need for sex, which appears to be the overall primary appeal, is the way sex imageries are used. The element used in connection with the need for attention is the way women’s pictures are exposed, some of which are decorated with necklaces, earrings and all sorts of make-ups.

The general type of appeal, which is the emotional appeal that the advertisement wants to exploit, is the need for sex. The need for sex is the primary appeal although there is the secondary appeal, which is the need for affiliation. Fowles (498) notes that companies need to learn ways of approaching the customers when making advertisements. For instance, the use of emotional appeals such as the need for sex and affiliation are powerful driving factors that drive women into buying the products. This is because women get attracted to fashions and beauty products that will make them to be affiliated with the male counter parts.

In conclusion, Glamour fashion and beauty adverts aim at diverse categories of women. They design their products in a way that creates an emotional appeal as well as the use impressive words, which attract the attention of the consumers. The cover page of the magazine is designed well and it portrays a picture of a beautiful woman. Thus, the general appeal of the magazine is the need for sex but there are other emotional appeals of the advertisement.

 

Works Cited

Glamour. Glamour Fashion and Beauty. 2010. Web. 7 October 2011.

http://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk

Fowles, Jib. “Advertising’s Fifteen Basic Appeals.” Research and Composing in the Disciplines. Laurence Behrens, Leonard J. Rosen. Boston: Pearson Learning Solutions, 2011, 2008, 2005. 495-512.

Petracca, Michael, and Madeleine Sorapure. Common Culture: Reading and Writing About

American Popular Culture. Princeton, N.J: Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic, 2007. Sound recording.