Vo5 advert (1)

VO5 ADVERT

WHAT’S THE ADVERT FOR?

This advert is to promote the break the mould addition of VO5 hair styling products. The purpose of this advert is to introduce the new range of hair styling products for men. In the past VO5 has predominately been for females therefore they needed new advert to show people the product is now for men too.

WHO IS THE TARGET AUDIENCE?

The primary audience for this advert is young males. The target demographic for this advert is males aged between 14-30. It’s also for working class or middle class people due to it’s affordable prices. The brand aims to provide men with salon inspired hair styles as reasonable prices.

WHAT FORM DOES THE ADVERT TAKE?

The advert is part of a miniseries. A miniseries is a small number of episodes that are part of a series. In advertisement they are used to promote the same product using different adverts to make them more interesting to their target audience as they will be intrigued as to what happens in each advert. It is part of a multi-platform advertising campaign using social networking sites, online advertising alongside a television campaign. The advert I have chosen shows people joining the army and as one man goes to get his hair shaved off he puts a pot of VO5 styling wax down. He then leaves with his hair styled and joins a group of other people who have their hair styled. Another advert that is part of the mini series shows people in a small rural community at a pageant in which the young men compete in front of an audience. One man comes on the stage with his hair styled while everyone else has similar hair styles. Although each advert has a different setting, they each share the same objective which is to show how their product enables people to break traditions and rules regarding their hair and be themselves.

WHAT STYLE IS THE ADVERT?

Adverts take on different style depending on the product they are trying to see and promote or the message they are trying to convey. Styles can include humorous, serious, dramatic, shocking, nostalgic, parody etc. The style of this advert is humorous as is plays on the idea of being rebellious in a strict environment by using a hair product. The link between going into the army and using a hair product is an odd one as is puts something quite serious with something that’s not very serious, creating an element of humour within the advert. It also has features of a parody as it uses an army setting, showing references from army films.

WHAT PERSUASION TECHNIQUES DOES IT USE?

Adverts use many techniques in order to persuade the viewer to either purchase their product or to convey a message and get them to listen to it. They also use specific language to attract our attention. This advert uses sex appeal by showing attractive males and females looking stylish. It shows a man and women making eye contact and the man winks at the women. Here they are trying to create sex appeal by focusing on beauty and attractiveness. This is an affective way of persuading people to buy the product as most aspire to be attractive. Another persuasion technique this advert uses is a slogan. Each advert that is part of the miniseries ends with the slogan “VO5 extreme style, break the mould.” This is an imperative telling the audience to rebel by styling their hair however they want with the help of VO5. It also uses a paradox by using an army setting for and advertisement for a hair product. This is persuasive as it make the audience interested due to the fact its unusual.

AIDA

Critics have argues that advertising attempt to take an audience through 4 stages to achieve a desired response.

A- Attract ATTENTIONI- Arouse INTERESTD- Stimulate DESIREA- Promote ACTION

Adverts such as the DFS adverts promote action really well by saying things such as “don’t miss out”, “last chance to buy” and “nearly sold out.” expressing urgency and emphasising the fact the sale will be over soon makes the audience more likely to take action. Adverts such as the Guinness advert were very successful at arousing interest due to it’s surreal style. Lynx adverts concentrate mainly on stimulating desire by showing a handsome man who after using the product gets the beautiful women.

DOES THIS ADVERT FOLLOW AIDA?

This advert attracts the audiences attention with it’s quirky style. The miniseries form that the VO5 adverts adopt arouse interest as the audience are intrigued as to what the story of each advert will be. It stimulates desire as the people in the advert look attractive after using the product, making the audience want to look the same as them. Finally the advert succeeds at stage four by telling the audience to “break the mould” promoting action from them.

A- Attract ATTENTIONI- Arouse INTERESTD- Stimulate DESIREA- Promote ACTION

CODES AND CONVENTIONS

This advert uses a lot of close up shots when filming the product itself, focusing on the purpose of the advert.

There are also a lot of wide shots to establish the surroundings and the situation.