How Does the Advertisement Attract the Attention of the Reader

How does the advertisement attract the attention of the reader? In all my ads, the reader was attracted by firstly the main graphic which always included a picture of the car, sometimes side on and sometimes front on as well as the headlines and the logo. In the Mazda CX-9 advertisement, the reader is attracted by the image of the car which takes up two thirds of the double page. It is blue and this corresponds with the blue uniforms the children are wearing and the blue jeans of the mother. She is looking directly at the reader. The children are all boys and look as if they are in a school sports team. The headline ‘It’s all about you (and 6 others) would attract the reader because it doesn’t quite make sense. The declarative sentence ‘It’s all about you’ suggests that the car is designed for a driver who is a parent, in this case a mother, and that their individual needs are important but it is also for a family or for transporting large groups of children. It is interesting that the children are frowning while the mother is smiling. Presumably, she is smiling because she owns this car and she knows she can fit all these children in. The Mazda logo would also attract readers. The Dodge advertisement also uses its ability to carry lots of children to attract readers and again the car is the main visual focus of the ad but there is a team of boys playing soccer behind the car. The car is in full focus while the boys are not. The headline ‘The Incredible Journey’ would attract readers to read the rest of the ad to find out why the car is ‘incredible’. This positive adjective is echoed in the other headline by the word ‘stylish’. There is a declarative sentence also ‘It’s the family car you want to show off.’ The use of the personal pronoun ‘you’ and the appeal to people’s desire to look good or better than others would attract readers. These ads are similar as they are both using sports teams to get across the idea that these cars can carry a lot of people but have other valuable qualities as well. Using boys suggests the cars can cope with children who are into ‘rough and tumble’. Both ads are trying to promote the value of their product to the individual driving the car as well as its capacity for carrying many people. In both ads, the reader is attracted by the prominent image of the car, the sport teams of boys and the headlines which contain declarative sentences and direct address.

How do the visual features support the verbal features? The Mazda advertisement is a double page advertisement with the car taking up two thirds of the ad. The text of the ad focuses firstly on the luxury qualities of the car with adjectives like indulgent and premium as well as information about the audio system, the seats and the sunroof. There is no technical jargon used and this is because the ad is directed at women who are apparently more interested in comfort. The fact that the woman and some of the boys are carrying luxury type shopping bags supports the ideas in the text because this car seems a luxury car. The second part of the text is more colloquial with a conversational ‘Oh yes, it’s …’ and ‘But remember…”. This part of the body copy is about transporting children so it is more casual in tone. This ad uses alliteration ‘ferrying the family’ which also makes it sound an every day occurrence. The idea that the car is only a family car when the children are in it is emphasised by the difference in the faces of the models – the children are frowning while the mother is smiling. This is reinforced by the use of personal pronouns – ‘It’s only a family car when they’re in it, the rest of the time, it’s about you.’ The ad sets up a ‘them and us’ situation by the visual and the verbal features. This also fits in with ‘It’s all about you.’