Magazine Adverts Analysis

Advert Analysis

Funeral Party – The Golden Age of Knowhere

This is the an advert for the debut album of the American band Funeral Party. I found this advert in an addition of NME prior to the release of the album.

Funeral party are a dance-punk/alternative/indie rock band.

Analysis of advertName of band takes prominent focus at the top of the advert. Contrast between black and white empahises this.

The name of the album is placed directly underneath in gold, suiting the ‘golden’ in the title.

The fact that the album is the band’s debut is flagged up prominently in white text.

All of the text is capitalised to make it stand out.

Important information such as the date of release and the band’s website is listed at the bottom.

The image used for the background is an long shot of the band performing in concert. You can see the signer bent over and carrying the mic stand over his shoulder, along with the bassist and guitarist playing in the background. This gives the band an image of enthusiasm and powerful performance.

The black and white hue of the image also gives the band a ‘classic’ feel.

Comparison/Continuity

The original cover for Us release bares little resemblance to the advert. However, the advert came fro m a British magazine so more closely resembles the cover for UK release. The colour scheme is, however, largely different (using blues and whites instead of black and gold).

The advert is almost a double of the iTunes cover – using the same image, font and colour scheme. This could suggest that the most important sales for the band’s album is on iTunes, also further showing the importance of continuity between the advert and the digipak.

The Wombats – Jump Into The Fog

This is the advert for the seventh single ‘Jump in the Fog’ released by ‘The Wombats’.

This is an A5 advert near the back of NME.

The advert features the band’s name in distinctive font – their own logo. The single title is capitalised and bold. Information about the release of the CD and legal information, as well as logos are also listed beneath the title on the left of the advert.

Comparison/Continuity

The silhouetted figure on advert appears to be diving, the image then blends with an image of black smoke. The background for the image is black overlaid with white fog – making reference to the single title.

The didgipak for the single uses exactly the same image and band title/single title arrangement.

The music promo does not immediately remind me of the digipak and advert but the use of fog is continuous throughout.

The Joy Formidable – The Big Roar

This is an A5 advert in NME for the release of ‘The Joy Formidable’s’ debut album ‘the Big Roar’. The image was located on the same page as the advert of ‘The Wombat’s’ single.

Like the other adverts this one lists the band name in the most prominent place, followed by the band title. The image is an illustration that seems to bear little relevance to the album title.

‘Debut Album’ and he release date are also noted.

Comparison/Continuity

The album cover for ‘The Big Roar’ uses the same image and colour scheme as the advert. It also uses the same font for the title but the title on the digipak is located at the bottom in white text. Unusually, the band name isn’t visible.

Although the image appears unrelated to the album title, it is clear that a theme of illustration has been upon with the bands other products – making their album cover recognisable to their fans.

Conclusion of Findings

Continuity between the digipak and the advert is important as this allows the consumers to easily find and purchase the album. However, similarity between the video and the digipak isn’t always essential.

As seen with ‘Funeral Party’ it is common for new bands to display their image on the front cover of the digipak and the advert to promote their star image.