Everywhere you go advertising is all around us. Whether it is in town with billboards and banners, or at home via the media with T.V. or radio.
Advertising is important to study as it tells us about how the mind reacts to pictures, colours and words and how the right mix of these tools can subconsciously force us into buying products which we would usually not consider buying. One example of this would be to buy a particular food because of advertising suggesting that you could lose weight, showing very attractive slim people but in small print on the product it says "only as part as a calorie controlled diet".
In this piece I shall discuss an advert for a shampoo manufactured by Clairol called "Herbal Essences".
The main picture in the advertisement is of the bottle at an angle with the shampoo exploding out of the top into flowers. I believe that this is trying to suggest when the bottle is opened, you are "hit" with a sudden powerful aroma of fresh flowers. The bottle is bursting with a natural fragrance.
The background of the advertisement has been kept quite plain and off-white in colour. I think that this has been chosen because it shows off the dark coloured bottle and flowers and makes it the main focal point (easily recognisable at the shop). Secondly it is a natural colour, fitting with the organic theme and not a false colour that perhaps purple might suggest, these rich colours indicate luxury. The advertiser, Clairol, will have wanted to keep this natural image throughout the advertisement due to the current trends of the day, as it is at the moment "fashionable" to eat organic foods, drink organic drinks and now it is becoming fashionable to wash your hair with organic shampoos.
The name of the product is "Herbal Essences" which suggests that the shampoo contains lots of different natural essences. The lettering is in a simple, small font and in the colour green on part of the advertising, again to look natural and healthy.