Advert Research

Comparison of adverts in XXL and NME

I will compare two adverts from NME and XXL magazine to see the comparison of what the magazines are trying to sell their readers and how these appeal to each target audience.
NME – Kaiser Chiefs single/Zavvie
These adverts are purely music advertisements; they are both styled onto half of a single page and they are trying to get the reader to but the music. The Kaiser Chiefs are trying to sell their new single: ‘Never Miss a beat’ and Zavvie is trying to sell the brand new albums on offer and giving examples which are picked for the magazines target audience to have maximum appeal: ‘Travis’ and ‘R Ra Riot’. These are bands that may capture the audience’s attention. These adverts show that this magazine’s main concern is music, the majority of all the adverts are for new albums and gigs and this advert is a prime example. The fact that the page is split in half shows the wide diversity of music adverts that the magazine wants to display; there is no particular focus on one area of music, the magazine wants to display as much of a variety of music adverts as possible.

XXL – Jewellery/watches (ItsHot.com)
This advert is displaying gold necklaces, rings, earrings and watches covered in expensive diamonds; in other words. I found this strange at first for a music magazine, however I realised that unlike NME, XXL’s music is all about image. Depending on the genre of music the magazine is containing, all of the adverts will appeal to the audience and in XXL’s case most of the adverts are about fashion and looking good. This comes before the music which shows just how cultural this music genre is (RnB/Hip hop) the adverts will display items which the audience may see their favourite stars wearing and so they will want to be like them as they aspire to them.
The colour scheme is very dark and masculine and contrasts with the main images (products) making them stand out and shout at you. This is the opposite from the NME advert which is more subtle and doesn’t highlight the products with contrasting colours. In XXL it is trying to grab the target audience’s attention by using bold images that shout whereas NME relies on the reader’s interest in bands to spot the adverts.