My Graphic Advertisement

Advertisement for Portable iPod Speakers

Graphic Advertisement Critique

Advertisement for Sony Headphones

Critique:

This particular magazine advertisement was for new Sony headphones that claimed to deliver great, studio-quality sounds.  The first thing that comes to my attention is the Moai (the “Easter Island Head”) in the foreground with the Sony headphones on.  It catches my attention first because it’s in the front of the picture, and is also drawn the largest out of the rest of the Moai.  In addition, the Moai that Sony wants the viewer to focus on also is the only head that has a smile on its face, therefore standing out even more and grabbing the attention.  Because of that smile, it gives a more lightened mood to it, and a feeling of a peaceful yet entertaining night (to the head with the headphones).

The ad uses different elements and principles of design to help project its message.  It uses the elements of point and gestalt in order group the heads through similarity and proximity.  It illustrates the Moai in a realistic form, with realistic scenery and also using texture to show the roughness of the rocks that the heads are made out of.  In terms of principles, there is a balance between the four heads, although unequal sizes, and that balance creates a certain unity throughout the overall picture.  There is also certainly a lot of emphasis on the foremost head, with the headphones and smile and all the things I listed earlier that grab the viewer’s attention.  The quite yet happy mood, as explained before, is created by the lack of movement in the facial expressions of the heads.  It is at night, with no living creates and just four stone carvings of heads staring somewhere outside the borders of the drawing.  It creates a very peaceful mood, yet the smile makes the one Moai in front have that sense of happiness and a sense of being entertained without disturbing the peace around it.

I think that there are a couple different messages that this work shows.  One is the effect of the headphone itself (as said before), and its ability to deliver great-quality sounds without disturbing the peace around the listener.  The other is the satisfaction that one can get from using headphones of Sony’s quality.  The semiotics that I can see is the smile on the one Moai’s face using the headphones versus the lack of expression on the others that don’t use the headphones.  By putting the phrases next to the head – the words reading “Your head will thank you for it” – the advertisement connects the idea of “thanking” with “smile” by using the headphones.  It encodes within the ad that wearing the headphones will make one happy and thankful that he/she chose Sony.

Although it may not be the best ad out there, I believe it does a good enough job in communicating the positives of the headphones in such a simple way.  To someone who uses headphones to listen to music and sounds often, like me, it would definitely have a positive effect, because the serenity and happiness that comes out of the art shown in the ad makes the headphones quite attractive.  Even if it may not matter so much to some that it would not disturb the people around them, the fact that these headphones deliver studio-like quality makes it attractive, enough to make them think that if they buy the product, then they might just do what the ad predicts and thank themselves for buying Sony’s product.