Analysis of magazine adverts

1. Imagine Dragons – Night Visions
This is a promotional poster for Imagine Dragons’ debut album ‘Night Visions’.
This will have appeared in music publications as a magazine advert when the
album was released in 2012. The poster is a zoomed-in version of the album
cover; music magazine readers will have recognised the image in future
contexts after seeing this poster, perhaps when seeing the album in shops,
and will have been reminded of the album.
The poster uses typography unique to the band. The use of an original font
creates a logo that audiences will recognise and associate with the band.
No band members are featured in the poster. This is because this is the debut
album, and the band would have been relatively unknown upon its release,
therefore featured band members will not have been recognised by the
majority of the target audience. However, instead of trying to create a band
image by featuring band members in their promotional posters/album covers,
the band opted to use symbolic imagery instead, perhaps intending to place
focus on the style and contents of their music rather than on the band
themselves.
The poster shows a young boy staring into the distance, standing on top of
stony pillars. This photo has an inherent mystery, as audiences are wondering
where/why he’s looking. This therefore creates intrigue in the music.
Our chosen band, Bastille, has a limited band image as only the lead singer is
really recognisable. Therefore, we could go for a similar approach in our
advert and use symbolic imagery as this is more in line with Bastille’s style.

2. Frank Ocean – Blonde
This series of images were used to promote Frank Ocean’s sophomore album Blonde
when it was unexpectedly released in August 2016. They were featured as
advertisements in Ocean’s magazine ‘Boys Don’t Cry. The images share the same
typography overlay: ‘blonde’ written in large lettering with Frank Ocean written in a smaller
size above it. The small size of the artist name infers that Frank Ocean doesn’t need his
name advertised as he already has popularity. (Ocean’s second album was widely
anticipated following the success of his debut album ‘Channel Orange’.) The album title,
however, is much larger and eye-catching. This signifies a change in Ocean’s style and a
progression in his career, as it differs from the design of his previous work and makes that
known to the audience with its large size. The album title is one-word and easily
remembered; this impact is boosted by the presentation of it.
The second image uses the photo on the album cover as the background for the image.
Ocean’s covered crying face with green hair is striking iconography, and audiences that
view it will recognise it as associated with the album when they see it in future, and will be
reminded of the album. The third image is an alternate album cover, and will have the
same effect.
The first and third image reference the notion of looking: the girl and the motorcyclist both
stare at the camera, with their hands in similar positions. These characters represent
female and male gender respectively. Their similar poses blurs the line between genders,
which is a theme reflected in the album (the album cover spells the title ‘blond’, the
masculine term, while it is called ‘blonde’ officially) and associated music videos (Ocean
wears eyeliner in the video for ‘Nikes’). Ultimately, themes of the music are conveyed in its
advertisement, which informs audiences what to expect from the music and provokes
intrigue from those that may be interested in it. These techniques of relating the advert to
the album should be incorporated into our own magazine advertisement.
As Ocean’s magazine will have only been viewed by a limited audience, and perhaps only
by people who were already fans of his music, these images were also used on iTunes to
promote his album when it was released. This utilisation of digital media to advertise the
music meant that these adverts were seen by a huge audience as iTunes has a
substantial userbase. The use of digital media to promote a magazine advert is a concept
that our group may take into account when creating our magazine advert.