Advertising is used in all aspects of everyday life, in magazines,
newspapers, billboards, television and radio to mention but a few.
They aim to show their product to be bigger, brighter and better than
any other product on the market. Consequently advertisers use colour,
text, images, language and layout to fight for the reader's attention;
so that they can influence the viewer's opinion of their product and
therefore persuade them to buy their product rather than any other.

The advert I have chosen to analyse is the 'Original Source' shower
gels advert. The target audience for this advert is young women
between the ages of 16 to 35. The text's purpose is to persuade the
reader to purchase the Original Source shower gels range by portraying
their product as the best available on the market and itemising its
range of unique features. This advert uses both words and pictures in
equal proportion to attract, inform and persuade the reader to buy
their product.

When viewing this advert the reader is first attracted to the main
picture, which takes up most of the right hand side of the advert.
Here the use of size attracts the reader's attention, making them
curious to find out what the advert is about. The picture features the
mint shower gel from the range with the lime shower gel set back
slightly, but still clearly visible. This is cleverly used to
subconsciously inform the reader of other shower gels in the range. In
the bottom right of the main picture is a lime and some herbs; these
appeal to the reader's sense of smell; implying that when you open the
shower gel bottle this is the natural smell you would be greeted with
therefore persuading the reader that these products are subsequently
better than any other on the market. The lime and herbs also provoke
our inner need to be more natural and healthy and in a sense go back
to nature. This in itself suggests a much slower, less stressful,
calmer way of life that in this demanding age would be a much welcomed
change. The mint shower gel bottle is covered in droplets of water
(another natural element) suggesting that it has just been taken out
of or used in someone's shower. This gives the reader the impression
that this is a straightforward, ready to use, shower gel that will fit
into our busy lifestyles.

There is one other smaller picture in this advert, situated in the
bottom left hand corner. This picture focuses on the different shower
gels in the Original source collection. The picture shows all of the
seven shower gels in the range; once again luring the reader into
buying all the different variants. Directly below this picture is the
caption which is written in small, clear, capital letters which makes
the text even easier to read. The text informs the reader of the 7
different variants in the range, giving each of the different exotic
names and telling the reader that there "all at £2.49 each". Even the
names of the products lure the reader into buying them with very few
other products on the market with such exotic and inviting names, "Tea
tree and lemon", "Orange and grapefruit", "Pure lemon" are just three
of the seven, all with equally tropical names.

The Original Source shower gels range has the slogan "Come alive, a
wildly different wake up call" This aids the reader in remembering the
product when in a shop. The slogan is situated in the top-left hand
corner above the main text and is written in capital letters, this
emphasises the words and makes them stand out to the reader." Come
alive…" this could mean, either, awaken yourself to a new and better
life by using this product, or, awaken your senses by using our
product. Either way the advert uses our need for a better, improved,
more natural life to entice the viewer into buying their product above
any other. "A wildly different wakeup call" the word "wildly" here is
used to convey the word 'very' and gives the writing more flavour and
sounds more interesting to the reader. This is also a pun on the word
wildly, suggesting that their product is so close to nature its "wild"
this is furthermore, an example of colloquialism. "Wildly different"
could mean out of this world, extremely different from what we're
accustom to but could also be used to relate back to nature showing
the product to be un civilised and animal like in nature. These poetic
devises add emphasis to the writing and make the advert more humorous
and interesting to the reader keeping their attention on the advert.

The main body of text is positioned in the top-left half of the advert
under the slogan. The main text is written in second person "They'll
wake you up like nothing you've ever experienced before" this gives
the text a friendlier, more personal touch and makes the reader feel
that the advert is solely directed at them. Words such as "unique",
"100% natural", "pure", "essential oils", "softening and amazing" are
all examples of 'buzz words', they are all the things that a consumer
looks for when looking for a product and are used to persuade the
customer that if they buy this product it will improve their life. The
language used is strong and slightly boastful. Examples of this would
be "100% natural", "like nothing you've ever experienced before",
"unique", "reviving", and "just amazing" convincing the customer that
in their opinion this is the product that will give you the softest,
most refreshed and revived skin you could ever want. There is no
onomatopoeia, metaphor, assonance or rhyme used in this text, but
there are two examples of alliteration in the line:

"Choose from a range of seven to give you the most Refreshing,
reviving and skin Softening stand up wash you'll ever want" this
emphasises the meaning of the text and makes the product sound even
more appealing to the reader.

Along the bottom of the promotion are the words

"No synthetic perfumes. No nonsense" backing up their natural view of
their product and convincing the reader that this product even smells
natural but is still practical so it can be fitted into our everyday
busy lifestyles. "No nonsense" is also another example of alliteration
and again adds emphasis. The fact that "No synthetic fragrances. No
nonsense" is broken into two short, sharp statements also adds to the
effectiveness of the language and slows down the rhythm, giving more
of an impact on the reader.

The blurb which is set under the main picture in the bottom-right hand
corner gives additional information about the product, such as, it is
"part of the Original source family of body, bath, hair and skin
ranges" it is "not tested on animals" and "is available from
supermarkets, leading high street chemists and pharmacies". All
information that aids the reader in buying their products. The type of
language used in the blurb is more straight to the point and
informative compared to the language used in the main text which is
showing off the product. The opening line of the blurb "ORIGINAL
SOURCE SHOWER GELS are…" is written in capital letters this is to
remind the reader of the name of their "amazing" product which the
reader is obviously interested in as they are now reading the blurb.
There is also information on their website showing that they are a
technologically up-to-date but are still a caring company "Why not
visit our website on www.originalsource.co.uk and join our club for
details of free samples, competitions and much, much more" The
rhetorical question at the beginning of this sentence adds a more
pleasant feel to the writing and makes the reader feel more welcome.
The reputation of much in "much, much more" emphasises that there is a
lot more to their website but not enough time or space to mention it
all. This give the reader the feeling that they are missing out and
that maybe they should go and have a look for themselves. In which
case this gives Original source another chance to convince the
customer that they need to buy original source products. There do not
appear to be any use of poetic devices in the blurb, but the words
"and" in the sentence "AND we don't test our products on animals" are
in capitals this emphasises that they are telling you yet another good
thing about their product and makes a sharp and firm point that they
don't agree with testing cosmetics on animals and even subliminally
suggests that other companies do.

There are several different scripts used in this advert. For example
the slogan is written in big, bold, black script to make it stand out,
compared to the smaller, normal script used in the blurb. In the main
text, which is written in fairly big, normal script, several words are
high-lighted in a turquoise/green colour (a very natural colour) such
as "unique", "natural", "refreshing", "essential oils" and "softening"
this is to make these promotive words stand out to the reader and make
the reader want to read on.. The "No synthetic perfumes. No nonsense."
line at the bottom of the advert is also highlighted in the same
colour and script for the same reason to attract the reader's
attention.

Although there is no obvious logo or symbol the front of the bottles
in both the main picture and the smaller picture are very predominant
and do the same job as a logo would, to represent and identify the
company. The large "ORIGINAL MINT SOURCE SHOWER" in a recognisable
big, bold, black script on the mint bottle in the main picture split
up by the pink/red box with the words "Tea Tree & Mint" in slightly
smaller script is not easily forgotten or unrecognisable. This aids
the reader in remembering and recognising the product when in a shop.

The colours used in this advert are all brighter shades of colours
that might be found in nature. The background is a very natural,
neutral shade of grey/white which emphasises the pictures, text other
colours used in this advert. The main picture focuses on shades of
green, a very natural colour, again playing on our need to be at one
with nature and return to a more simplistic way of life. The light
source is situated behind the bottle; this gives the bottle a more
flawless appearance and makes the picture seem bolder to the reader.
The second smaller picture uses yellows, oranges and greens all
colours that can also be found in nature, adding to our hunger for the
natural, purer market of products to "improve" our lives. There is
also a spotlight on this second picture to make the colours and the
bottles look brighter and more appealing to the reader.

Overall this advert is very effective. It uses natural colours and
pictures to appeal to the reader's need, in this technological age to
go back to natural products instead of chemicals and synthetic
fragrances. The words are carefully chosen for the main text and the
blurb so as to convince the reader that this is the product they need.
The slogan aids the reader to remember their particular product above
all others and shows the reader that their product is better than any
high-Tec, scientific shower gel that you could buy. Although this
advert uses few poetic devices such as onomatopoeia, rhyme or
alliteration the text is still very effective. The pictures are all
carefully chosen to show the product at its best, to aid the reader in
seeing the natural side of their product and break up the writing and
invite the reader to linger and find meaning. They also act as a logo
or symbol for the company as the front of their bottles is very
distinct and could easily be picked out in a shop. The "buzz" words
which will attract readers to the product are cleverly highlighted in
a natural colour to make them stand out and therefore attract the
reader. For, the target audience being young women, this advert is
well worded, designed and juxtaposed to attract the right audience,
young women.