Comparison & Contrast Essay

In society it seems that everywhere we look we are surrounded by advertisements whether it is television commercials, billboards or advertisements. Obviously, the main purpose of advertisements is to get the consumer to purchase the product. Print advertisements are an extremely effective way to reach a mass audience because the advertisements are in print, the use of color, text and photography are all key factors in luring the consumers in to buying their product. Advertisements cannot simply attempt to sell the product in question; they must make it appeal to the consumer. It is important that advertisements not only attempt to make the product they are trying to sell clear but also to actually make the advertisement mean something to us, the consumer. The two advertisements that I will be comparing and contrasting are two make-up ads. I picked these two ads because I feel they do a great deal of drawing their consumers in. Mascara is a must have in the make-up world. Most women wear mascara to make their eye â€Å"pop. † Consumers will automatically look at these two ads because of the brand names and how people classify make-up. By knowing that a lot of consumers look at these ads they have to make the ads interesting. Not only will I be comparing and contrasting these two ads but by doing that I will also be telling how they draw consumers in to looking and buying their product. The first ad for mascara came from the magazine Lucky. Lucky is mostly targeted towards young teens and women. This mascara in the advertisement is made by Rimmel London. The use of color is very helpful in this ad because it uses bright vibrant colors that catch your attention. The color of the mascara is black and electric green. Also, the color of the models eyes is very blue which accentuates the true color of the mascara. By making the models eyes such a pretty color it might make people think that if they use this certain mascara it might make their eyes â€Å"pop† like the models does. In the article all the words are written in white and all caps in the background. I think the reasoning behind writing all the words in white is because it is a neutral color and it also stands out. Although the colors really help, keywords also have a great toll in selling a product. By putting â€Å"REV UP THE VOLUME† in big letter it draws your attention. It draws people in that want more volume for their eyelashes. All caps draws your attention and makes you want to read every word on the ad. By putting that if you use the product you will have denser more numerous lashes in 30 days it make consumers want to buy this product and actually see if the product will work. Last but not least is the layout of this ad. Layout really helps make an advertisement. By making the model take up most of the page, your attention goes directly to her. Even without knowing what the ad is about; if you just look at her you can automatically tell it is a mascara ad by her eyelashes. By putting the words around the model you can read them and after every word you read about it helping your eye lashes you can’t help but look back at her eye lashes. The brush of the mascara is out of the bottle so the consumer can see what the brush looks like and how it will form their lashes. The second ad is also found in the Lucky magazine, which means it also mostly targets young teens and women. The mascara in this particular ad is made by Revlon which is a very popular brand of make-up. This company took a very smart approach by getting a celebrity model to endorse this product which is a very beneficial thing. The colors in this ad are more laid back compared to the Rimmel London ad. The use of all black and then making just around the eyes a little lighter automatically draws your attention not just to the model but to her eyes. The words are in white and a very pretty aqua color. These colors stand out very well on the black background. By closing the eyes I believe it shows how long the lashes look. The words are on the top and on the bottom of the page. In my opinion, the reasoning behind this is so that if you start at the top of the page you will read down to the bottom of the page. The mascara top is out of the bottle and shows quality of the brush and just how thick it is and by doing this, Revlon is trying to visually convince the consumer that with this thicker brush, the more luscious your eyelashes can become. After looking at all of the aspects of these two ads, they have a lot of similarities. The first main similarity is that they both came from the magazine Lucky. By putting these ads in the same magazine, these two mascara providers are competing with each other for the teenage and young woman market. On both of the ads the mascaras are in very pretty colors. Although the colors are different they both stand out and make the mascara unique. Keywords of these ads are very alike. All of the very important words are in all caps, big, white, and very noticeable. The layouts of these two ads are almost just alike. Both of the ads have the model in the very middle of the page which is where usually all the main focus of the reader goes. Both of the mascaras are on the bottom right corner of the page which goes well because after the reader has seen this beautiful woman and what this mascara has done for her, the reader looks to the bottom to see just exactly what the mascaras name and appearance is. Even with many similarities, there are still some differences between these two ads. The brands of the mascaras are different, one is Rimmel and the other is Revlon. The use of color is very different in these two ads; Rimmel London used black and electric green where Revlon used black and aqua. In the Rimmel ad the colors are very bright and vibrant colors, while the Revlon ad is very dark and dull. Although the keywords are alike they are very different too. In the Rimmel ad the words are in all caps, no matter how big they are they are still in caps. Some words in the Revlon ad are all caps but then the words that are small are in regular font. After comparing and contrasting these two very marketable mascaras, it is very difficult to pick which one is the clear cut winner. Many people have different styles, so maybe the black and electric green appeals to half of the readers where the black and aqua mascara appeals to the other half. Both of these companies did a very good job in putting their advertisement out there and making their product very attractive and marketable. These companies have been around a long time and know what they’re doing. If that means coming up with competitive ads week in and week out, they’re willing to do whatever it takes to be the top mascara provider in the world.