Analysis of CD advertisement 1

All of the magazine advertisements that I have chosen to analyse are taken from a magazine called DJ mag, and are CD’s of the Dance genre. I have deliberately chosen a magazine in which dance music features strongly because my song choice is categorised under the dance genre and therefore, analysing adverts of the same or of a similar description will give me inspiration as to the way in which I should design my own CD cover.

The first advert that I have chosen to analyse is from a Spanish DJ called Juanjo Martin.

The first obvious feature of the advertisement is the interesting juxtaposition of the main black and white image, which is in the centre of the page, with splashes of very bright colour. Presumably to draw the attention to the image which is quite unusual. The image itself is of a man covering his ears appearing to be in some discomfort and around him are graphics which seem to be spilling out from him. The image is very stylised and cartoonified; the effect of having these graphics around the DJ suggests that the images are a product of his imagination and the fact that the image of the DJ himself has been turned into a cartoon adds to the sense of distorted reality. This would appear to dance music fans because the idea of escaping from reality into a world of hedonism is commonly associated with the genre of music, more so than other genres.

The image is intended to convey to the consumer a sense of confusion and boldness which is intended to pragmatically be a representation of both the music and the DJ.

Aside from the main image the consumers attention is intended to be caught by the colourful text in the bottom right hand corner which highlights the awards won by the DJ and in the top left hand corner are images of the CD covers of the albums he is currently releasing. The fact that the advert contains so much information about the artist and his achievements suggests that he is not particularly well known so this is as much of an advert for the DJ himself as it is for the album.

There is a lot of information on the page including ways in which to get in touch with the DJ most of which being online through the use of facebook, twitter etc... this suggests that the DJ is very up to the minute with modern technology and this would be another appealing characteristic to the target audience, which is presumably around 15-30, a generation who are very familiar with, and in some ways dependant on, technology in their everyday lives.