Monday, November 5, 2007

The Advertising Business

I was reading the Shape and I found several advertisements that captured my attention.
The first article is an advertisement for Wheat Thins. The company directs the attention to women in efforts of promoting its snack. In the advertisement, A women is smiling looking off in the distance with several wheat thins in her hands, and the caption of the ad says
"A girl's gotta
dream
share
have a taste
defy
eat"
In addition at the bottom of the page, it says "Wheat Thins. The thin little crackers that are big on taste."
In the Dual Coding theory, it describes how the most effective system to use is both language and pictures. I feel that the magazine article is appealing to the eye, however it is nothing special. It does not really make me want to run to the store at this moment and buy some Wheat Thins.

As I continued to skim through the magazine, I found an advertisement for REI. It had an interesting approach to capture the readers. They directed their attention in this advertisement for both males and females. The backdrop is a beautiful nature scene with white capped mountains with greenery surrounding them, and also it includes a male and female running on a dirt path up the one of the mountains. The words on the page are descriptive and give an alternative outlet in place of a couple of minutes of speed dating. The slogan for REI is "Out is in." I think this is an effective ad that captures the audience's attention. As a reader of Shape, the companies want to attract people that love the outdoors and would like to adventure. I believe this advertisement adapts the Dual Coding Theory to the product that is being sold (which in this case is the actual REI company) more effectively than the previous ad for Wheat Thins.

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