This advertisement poster for the Manic Street Preachers album "Journal for Plague Lovers" features a painting of a young boy instead of the band. The painting uses multiple colors to represent different emotions and connotes innocence and vulnerability. It suggests a narrative enigma because it's unclear who the boy is, why he is sad, or why his face is red. The rough brush strokes fighting for attention also create a disorderly effect, reflecting traits often associated with rock music bands.

1. MANIC STREET PREACHERS - advert poster analysis
This is an advertisement for the
band, Manic Street Preachers’
album, ‘Journal for Plague
Lovers’
Unlike the others, this
advertisement does not feature
the artist, instead the image
shows the audience a painting of
a young boy.
This young boy connotes
innocence and vulnerability,
with the use of multiple colours
representing different emotions;
possibly the sorts of emotions
associated with love.
A painting is a way in which
thoughts, emotions and ideas
can be placed on a page, in the
same way a journal (album title)
can be used.
There is a sadness within the
boys physicality and eyes
represented through the no
direct line of address, empty expression and large eyes. However this is juxtaposed with the
rough, large brush stokes used to paint suggesting a fight for attention as well as creating
an uneven, disorderly effect, a repeated trait within the rock genre of music, as rock bands
have been stereotyped as unruly musicians. The poster suggests a narrative enigma,
because it is not clear as to who the boy is, why he is there, and why he is sad and why his
face is seen red.
The use of a sans-serif font creates uniformity and allows text to stand out better for the
audience. While the bands logo font has been used for the band name and album title, this
features a backwards ‘R’ which is an alternative form of text reflecting the genre.
The rock genre is further represented through the promotion of where the album can be
purchased; this poster shows the amazon logo, this is a less conventional platform to access
music, and targets an audience that may not use iTunes, this could include older people.