The advert for Blink-182's album "Neighborhoods" uses a simple color scheme of black and white to establish the band as part of the rock genre. The large image of the album cover stands out against the black background to catch readers' attention. Unlike many ads, it does not feature images of the band members, possibly because this is their first album after a six-year hiatus. The minimal text highlights key information about the album in a concise way that creates intrigue and encourages people to learn more by buying it. The fonts used also clearly associate the band with the rock genre through mirrored letters and straight edges atypical of other genres.

1. Blink-182 - Neighborhoods
Magazine Advert Analysis

3. Blink-182 – Neighborhoods, advert shown in Kerrang! magazine in early 2011
The advert for the Blink-182 album “Neighborhoods” has been done in a very
simplistic style with little variation in the colours used. The band have clearly
established themselves within the rock genre through the use of dark colours
and only having a range of colours between black and white. This range of
colour is a convention of the rock genre and creates connotations of the band
being dark and not being very warm. It may also relate to how they have grown
and shows a more adult style after their reformation as a band. Through the use
of these colours, it makes all of the text and the image of the album cover stand
out so it is easy to read and understand.
The main image for the advert is a picture of
the album cover. It takes up over half of the
page and is a stark contrast to the black
background helping to make it stand out to the
reader. Through doing this, people will
automatically recognise the album cover when
in a shop or going to buy it and they are more
likely to take notice of it and look at it when
reading through the magazine. This is a good
marketing technique as more people will look
at which means that more people are likely to
buy the album – this is assisted by the band
name being on the album cover so the
audience are likely to recognise the band
name and want to buy it.
This advert has gone against the conventions
of an advert though as it does not feature any
images of any of the band members – either
together or as a group. This could be due to
this being their first album out after a 6 year
hiatus. Because of this, it does not show the
band together as they have been separate for
so long and instead focuses on the album
that they have created together. By doing
this, it shows the audience how important this
album is to them and how they want them to
focus on the music they have done instead of
the actual band (which is a running theme
within the rock genre).
The only text on the page tells the audience
the name of the album, the band, the
“featured track”, the release date and the
bands website. By including such little text on
the advert, it pinpoints all of the most
important information that the audience needs
to know and gives nothing extra. Through this,
the advert has connotations of mystery and
creates a sense of curiosity in the audience
which are two character conventions of the
rock genre. This is also likely to encourage
people to buy it to find out more about it and
hear about the other songs included on the
album. All of the text is centre-aligned as well
so that the audiences eye is automatically
drawn toward it and means that they are more
likely to read it and consider buying it.
The fonts used has clear connotations to the rock genre. This can be seen
through how some of the letters have been mirrored and how they are
compromised through mostly straight edges. This style of writing is commonly
used in adverts for albums in the rock genre as it goes against the conventions
of other genres and is very different to what you would see with other genres.
By doing this, it clearly defines the band as part of the rock genre and makes it
easily recognisable to the audience as well.