Techniques Used in Print Advertising Essay -- Literary Analysis

There are a plethora of features and techniques used in print advertising which are often invisible to the naked eye, and primed at targeting the audience’s subconscious mind. Audiences consume advertising wherever they look or go, whether it be on a train, reading a newspaper, or even using the public bathrooms. Conventions are constructed, and past knowledge is exploited, by what can be acknowledged as a ‘language of advertising’. Print-based advertising is a genre that has been around for a significant amount of time now, and a form that continues to flourish and adapt itself despite the prominence of more contemporary methods, such as the internet, and more recently, the growth of tablet computing. The following investigation will focus on two different newspaper advertisements for energy suppliers – one from British Gas, and the other from SSE. A consideration of audience will be undertaken, before analysing the use of language, structure, images and t ypography in each. Then, following this detailed analysis, a commentary on the persuasiveness of each advert will make for a fitting and necessary conclusion. Firstly, as suggested, it is important to consider the audience and context of the two focus advertisements before beginning an analysis of the primary features. This will provide a solid contextual framework, and make a link between audience, context, and features possible later in the investigation. Both advertisements were featured in a copy of The Guardian, a British national daily newspaper with a respectable circulation. The Guardian is centre-left in its political stance, thus inevitably attracting a readership with shared values. In addition, the newspaper is particularly popular in the 18-54 age demographic. (De... ...rticularly attempt to tie in with the content of the advert in a way that is witty, unlike the SSE advert. However, the declaratives in the main body of text, such as ‘We’ve introduced lots of things to help’, could persuade readers to read on to discover exactly what they’ve introduced to help. Such a question /answer approach is utilised throughout the advert. Works Cited - Advertising ‘Demographic profile of Guardian readers’ (2010) http://www.guardian.co.uk/advertising/demographic-profile-of-guardian-readers [Accessed 04 December 2011]. - Vestergaard, T; Schroeder, K (1985), The Language of Advertising, Wiley-Blackwell - Goddard, A (1998), The Language of Advertising: Written Texts, London: Routledge - Delin, J (2000), The Language of Everyday Life, London: Sage - Cook, G (1992), The Discourse of Advertising, 1st edn. London: Routledge