ANALYSING AN

ADVERT

Max P
and
Sam M
and
Jake D
and
Michael

What is present?
Everything that is present in this image is stereotypically attractive to
the target audience of females. The sole person is a woman so is
relatable to other women. The items of clothing, shoes and hats and
also pictures that are neatly circular surrounding her are
stereotypically things that females like. As well as that, they are all
pink which is a colour that is often associated with girls. The logo and
the product are both shown so what is being advertised is obvious.

What is absent?
There are no male people or anything that would be associated with
males strongly. A man with a football in the advert would change it a
lot. The advert would appeal more to men but the appeal to women
would be less.

How is the representation being constructed?

The representation is being constructed by the strength of the image.
The woman is represented as being happy because of the smile on
her face and because of the fact she is surrounded by things that
modern society assume she likes.

What is the message?

Due to the fact that this is an advert and its main purpose is to sell a
product, the message is buy our product. However, instead of being
that simple, this advert encodes its message to females. The
message is that females specifically would enjoy utilising the product.
There are other adverts for the same brand that offer differing
messages but this one focuses on the attention of women.

This advert is polysemic. It can be interpreted in opposite ways.

There is a coexistence of many possible meanings for this advert.
Women could see the advert and be impressed because of the things
it is showing that women can buy. On the other hand, men may not
be impressed with this particular one because they may dislike the
fact that it is aimed towards women so heavily. They could interpret it
as selfish and may not like that they could be being ignored.

The Toshiba logo and the photo of the laptop adds anchorage to the
advert. It provides meaning to the advert because it tells the viewers
what is being promoted. If the logo was absent, the advertisement
would not be anchored, therefore, it would have no official identity.