Magazine ad analysis - Essay Example

Thus, designers pay meticulous attention to every minute detail of an image that the ad portrays, in order to ensure that it stays engraved in the viewers’ memory. The ad of Arby’s Burgers, appearing in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, which is appended as Annexure-I, is a relevant example that illustrates how creativity, aesthetics, color schemes, contextual nuances, enticing textual messages etc can be deftly aligned to enhance the appeal of an advertisement. This ad announces Arby’s plan to launch an “exciting” range of “new menu items” in the next March (Rovell).

It functions on different levels to pique the interest of its audience and entice them into buying this product. The ad’s primary objective is to provide the intended audience with clear and specific information about the Roastburger, which is part of their new menu being launched. On the one hand, it conveys to them through textual messages that the burger is “exciting,” “done better,” “mouthwatering” and it will make them “drool” (Rovell). These are the most apt descriptions for the consumers to understand that Arby’s is offering a highly palatable food item.

On the other hand, it uses the image also to give the consumers a vivid idea of the contents of the burger, by clearly showing green leaves, onion strings, big chunks of roasted meat, slices of tomato and cheese. Thus, the ad effectively integrates visual and textual communication methods to describe the product. In order for an ad to be effective, it should be able to sell the product or make the viewers buy the product. Arby’s ad uses various strategies to attain this objective. The crossed hands over the burger connotes to a woman covering her breasts.

Thus, the ad is a definite eye catcher and has an instant appeal. The most primal sense that woman’s breast evokes in humans is hunger as breast milk is their first food. Thus, the ad has high contextual relevance and the audience can easily relate it with the product. Similarly, the textual messages in the ad directly link to the food item’s taste and, therefore, it will remain on the consumers’ subconscious mind long after they have viewed it. The words used in the textual message are highly alluring and the burger’s image also is indicative of its taste.

Thus, through the manner in which it combines the immense possibilities of written and visual communication, the ad will definitely be able to lure its audience into buying the product. The ad relies heavily on the dexterous juxtaposition of color schemes to attain aesthetic beauty and create an impact on the audience. The background has a very light tone at the bottom and as it scales to the top, the hue is rendered darker because otherwise it would overemphasize the brown-yellow buns. Similarly, the color of the buns compliments the skin of the arms and thus makes the connotation to human breast conceivable.

Further, by using darker hue around the thumb, the ad suggests depressions on the bun’s surface, to accentuate the softness of the bun. The burger’s filling begins with green and immediately contrasts with deep red, which gives it a catchy outlook. The color scheme then shifts to a brown tone of the roasted meat and softens out to the yellow of the cheese, which blends well with the color of the human hand and the bread. The deftness of the color scheme becomes evident even from such minute detail as the model’