Feb. 27, 1996
English 2
Dr. Vance Smith
Magazines are very popular in American culture. There are a great variety of topics expressed in magazines. One can find magazine topics ranging from news magazines, such as Time and Newsweek, to hobby magazines, such as Outdoor Photographer. Another interesting topic is automobile magazines. Motor Trend, Car and Driver, and Automobile are the most popular car magazines.
The magazine companies, just like all other American companies, want to make money. The largest form of revenue for magazines is not the subscription sales, but the advertising sales. Other American companies pay millions of dollars every year to magaz ine companies for placing advertising in their publications. The advertising agencies place ads in publications that are targeted to their target audience. Automobile manufactures place advertisements on their new line of cars in magazines such as Motor Trend because the target audience of the two products are alike.
In Motor Trend magazine, there are many different examples of how car manufactures use interesting advertising techniques to persuade the readers to buy or even think of buying one of their cars. An example that will be analyzed in this paper is an adve rtisement of the Nissan Maxima SE. The structure, photograph, and the placement of the advertisement are all interesting aspects of this particular advertisement.
The placement of the advertisement can truly determine the effectiveness of the ad. This particular advertisement is located in a section of Motor Trend magazine called Trends. This section of the magazine contains information and photographs of new pr ototypes now being developed by assorted manufactures. The gives the viewer of the ad the feeling that if they have a Nissan Maxima SE, they will own the newest of the new. The reader finds themselves reading about the future cars and then BANG, the new Nissan Maxima SE! The advertiser wants the reader to look into the future and see themselves in the driver's seat of the Maxima SE. The reader does not always become fooled by where the advertisement is in the magazine, so the advertisers pull another trick from their hat.
Many magazine readers will read only the articles that catch their eye. That is where the second advertising technique is thrown into action -- the photograph. The photo in this example is the background for the advertisement. The photograph of the Ni ssan Maxima SE is placed toward the center of the ad and it seems to be a motion photo. The photograph gives the reader the sense that the vehicle is traveling at high speeds. The car seems to be quickly traveling on a race track where the walls of the track are blurred in the photograph. This suggests that the vehicle is fast, but how fast is fast. The advertisers do not exactly tell the reader how fast this car is, but in the photograph it looks as if it is FAST! Where can the average American car owner drive their car to the speed limitations of the car? The advertisers know that it would be unethical to tell the readers, if you buy this car, you too can drive as fast as you want. This would be encouraging the readers to break the speed limit la ws. The photograph can initially grab the eye of the reader and maybe hold the reader's attention for a short time, but the reader will soon lose interest.
Here is where the third persuasion technique is introduced. The layout or structure of the advertisement is one which this reader has never seen before. The advertisement is a full two page ad and it has the car off to the left of the center of the ent ire layout. Here is the most interesting part of the whole advertisement. The read at the top of the ad says "Whether it's a luxury car or a performance car depends on how you look at it". There is read on the left side of the picture that explains why it is considered a luxury car. But if the magazine is turned around sideways the photograph looks totally different. And while the magazine is turned the reader can see read about why this car is consider a performance car. This is like having two car s in one and also two advertisements in one. The ad is fairly self explanatory in that the reader can see read on right side of the advertisement, but they have to turn the magazine to read it. Also the read on the left side of the ad gives instructions on turning the magazine with the phrase at the end "With a slight twist". While the reader has the magazine turned, they see the photograph in an entirely new perspective. This is a perfect example of how advertisers manipulate the consumers into doing things the consumer would not ordinarily do. Who reads a magazine sideways?
The advertisers, who have developed this advertisement for Nissan Maxima SE, have shown that the structure, placement, and photograph of an ad can express every aspect that a new car manufacturer wants the consumer to think about. In addition, they also manipulated the possible buyer into behaving differently. This is the major reason for advertising -- get the consumer to buy a product that they would not even think of buying. The advertisers have given the consumer the idea of getting two cars for t he price of one in this advertisement.