Cosmetic Advert

This is the cosmetic advert that I have created.

The target audience for my advert are glamorous, seductive, sexy women that are between the ages of 25 - 35 when women mainly appear to be confident and glamorous. They are most likely to be feminine and elegant. I chose to advertise a perfume because it connotes glamour and flirtatiousness. It naturally stands out and I thought that this suited the target audience that I wanted for my perfume. The advert appeals to the audience by connoting dominance, success and seductiveness. I chose to have the whole of the women in my advert because it shows that the women is dominant in the advert and that she is glamorous and the women herself demonstrates the connotations that I also want the perfume to have. The dominant gaze on the face attracts the audiences and the face connotes strength and the flirtatious side of women. This appeals to the audiences ambitions to be independent and dominant females who can take control over their lives. They want to be like the women in the advert. The way the model is sitting connotes the seductive side of females and that they can be dominant over men. This appeals to the audiences ambitions because they strive to be sexy, confident and attractive to males, yet still have control. The model in the advert is wearing a very elegant dress; this connotes the sophistication and femininity of the perfume itself. These can all be linked to the ambitions of the appealing audience. The advert uses very dark colours apart from around the name of the perfume, this is so that the name of the perfume stands out, and also connotes the dangerous, sexy side of women that I want the perfume to connotes. The darkness also symbolises power and the purple of the bottle symbolises love and seduction. This is juxtaposed by the light of the moon and the border of the name which symbolised innocence. I chose to call my perfume midnight because I thought it related to the connotations of the perfume and that people tend to be more glamorous and elegant when they go out at night. Also this is when they need a confidence boost and a spray of the perfume 'Midnight' is just what they need. I chose the font because it was black with stars on, this symbolises the elegance and confident product that it is. The theory of the male gaze links to my advert because when men look at this advert they will 'see a relationship between the image and them'. When men see women in an image like this they often admire them and see them as an object of his desire in his domain. Women would like to be admired and desired therefore would like to be like the model in the advert.

Technologies played a big part in helping me in the process of constructing my advert. I used a digital camera to get the pictures I needed. I took more than one of each of the pictures so that I could choose the one that I wanted to use for my final advert. Also so I had the right lighting for the advert that I needed. I found the digital camera easy to use because I have used one before, this was good because I was able to take good pictures for my advert. I edited my advert on photoshop and considering that I had never used it before I think I picked it up quite well. I think that if I had more experience my advert would have been a lot better. Photoshop enabled me to put all the components of my advert together and make it as one. In photoshop I used a range of tools which allowed me to cut out the picture of the model. I used the magic wand which cut out all of the colours that I didn't want, this meant I could keep mainly all the darker colours which made the advert appear sexy. I used the lasoo tool which let me have a clean cut around the whole body. This meant that it looked like it fitted in my advert and didn't have any parts that I didn't want in it. On my perfume bottle I used the same tools, but I also used the smudge tool. This meant that I had a clean cut around the bottle and didn't look like I had cut it out, it looks like it is supposed to be there and it is a real advert. I used the website 'dafont.com' to get an appropriate font for the title of my perfume so that it relates to the product. I found this website quite easy to use even though I had never used it before. Technologies such as these are empowering amatuers to produce semi professional media products in a way that couldn't be done before. Amatuers are interested in how it is done and then they have a go at it themselves, realising that it is possible for ordinary people to become media producers. These technologies are letting the audience become the producer because they are able to produce their own advert using technologies such as photoshop. The audience has realised that you don't have to be a genius to create adverts such as these and they can do it themselves. They have more power than the media producer.

My advert represents women as glamorous and dominant, even though my advert is aimed at women between the ages of 25 - 35, women at any age can be like this. They are confident in themselves and find that they are seductive and sexy and that they can take control over men even when it is usually known as men being the ones in control. It shows that women can be who they want to be and don't have to stick to the stereotypical label that they hold. If a feminist was looking at my advert then they would say that the man would be the more dominant one and that the women is looking weak. This is because is the 'male gaze' theory when they see an image of a women like this they see the relationship between the image and themselves and see her as a creature of his domain and that they are under his gaze possession. I disagree with this because I think that the women is more dominant as she is laying because it shows exactly what she wants and men are weakened by her gaze.