Textual Analysis – Newspaper Advertisement

Danielle Watkins

Example 1 The purple is used in the logo and the TV series name, because it follows the house style of E4’s website and TV double page spread. However, the main image is red because of what the newspaper advertisement shows. As you can see, the image is a photo of a teenage guy jumping in the air, with smoke in the background. Therefore, we know as the audience that the red is representing the fire where the smoke is coming from. Using an image which shows a dramatic effect, such as smoke, makes the reader want to watch the show to understand what's happened. Therefore, it is important for us to include an image or several images that are interesting and exciting. The image is the main feature that captures the audiences attention, as a result, it is important that it is fascinating.

This is an example of a newspaper advertisement for the TV Channel E4, advertising the brand new series ‘Skins’. Using a typical newspaper advertisement convention, E4 have presented their logo, using the colour purple as their house style colour. Even though they have used the logo, the convention has been subverted by being positioned at the bottom of the page which is different to other newspaper advertisements. For example, most newspaper advertisement presented their logo and TV Channel name at the top of the page. Because of the image, if the logo was presented at the top, it would cover the main image, which will look unprofessional. As a group we have decided to avoid presenting our TV Channel name and logo at the bottom of the newspaper advertisement, as we think the title will be more appealing and eye catching at the top. The colours used in this advertisement are fire red, and purple.

Example 2 This is an example of a documentary advertisement which will be fairly similar to our final project for our own newspaper advertisement. Using a typical convention, this advertisement includes the logo for the TV channel and the title of the documentary, placed at the bottom of the advert. We, as a group, decided to incorporate this convention into our newspaper advertisement as it is used in most adverts, and looks proficient. They represent a variety of genres across the newspaper advertisement, therefore, showing Aristotle’s theory as this depicts that the audience seeks pleasure from a range of different genre. Moreover, the fact that different genres are signified within the advert indicates the diversity that Channel 5 offers, subsequently depicting the mass audiences and variation in psychographic audiences that they can entice towards their shows.

In this advertisement the colour scheme used has been consistent throughout, which professionalises the TV Channel. The red conveys the themes and documentaries used in the advertisement. For example, in the main image above the title, one of the characters is holding a gun, therefore the red colour scheme can signify the danger within documentary. This newspaper advertisement subverts the convention slightly as this is advertising different documentaries on the TV Channel, whereas, most TV advertisements only advise one TV channel and one show. As a group we have decided to convey our newspaper similar to the one shown.