Media blog #2 Home Brewed Taste

April 28, 2013

A home brewed taste that we'll love at first sip.  Ice cold tea during a warm and sunny spring day.  What's better than that?  This advertisement for sweet tea is perfect for this season.  Sunny days are in the future and we'll certainly need something cold to drink, right?  The ad shows a couple during a pleasant day, drinking sweet tea and enjoying the outdoors.  The bottle is placed in the corner of the ad so it's not exactly the center of focus because the consumer wants to see a story along with the product.  We want to see that happy couple on a lovely spring day.  Nonetheless, the bottle of tea is plenty large enough for us to see the writing on the bottle and take in the wonderful amber color of the drink.  If the tea has a "home brewed taste," it must be really good, right?  Homemade is always better, as we're told to believe.  But what does "home brewed" taste like?  I certainly do not know what home brewed sweet tea tastes like because no one in my family makes sweet tea.  However, the word choice makes it sound homemade, and usually homemade is healthier.  Therefore, this tea must be healthy (so it seems).

The lighting in this advertisement is a perfect way to express what season it is and how the weather seems to be.  Sweet tea should be a spring or summer beverage, as this ad is showing.  It's cool and refreshing, perfect for a warm day.  The ad has a nice image of the couple enjoying their day in the park and drinking their Gold Peak Tea.  Doesn't this look relaxing?  

Our physiological needs are present in this ad because who doesn't want a nice and refreshing drink during the warm months?  Just looking at the ad is supposed to make us want some sweet tea, because we're probably thinking of the weekend or summer.  Sitting in the park with a cool drink sounds especially appealing, since the weather is warming up.  The setting of the ad aims to make the tea sound and look that much more appetizing.  

  

Media blog #1 April 27, 2013

I found this advertisement in a travel magazine and it caught my eye because of the classic black and white picture.  The advertisement is for a hotel in New York and the caption at the bottom of the page says, "An icon returns to center stage, and all New York is talking."  The advertisement gives off an elegant look with the black and white picture and bronze frame.  The page is aesthetically appealing because of the color scheme and the classic '20s style look.  The woman is situated in the middle of the picture and your eye is immediately drawn to her and you wonder why she is jumping with a look of pure joy.  Therefore, you want to read the caption.  Across the middle of the page, it says "Pierre, Again." Underneath this, it says, "From Taj Hotels, The Grand Reopening."  The letters are in elegant font and the bronze and white stand out against the black and white background.  From this picture, you get a sense that this hotel is very elegant and classy.  Personally, I would expect the hotel to have a 1920's theme as well, since the picture seems to give off this feeling.  

This advertisement could be using ethos as its form of persuasion because it tries to establish credibility by saying that Taj has been creating, enhancing, and caring for landmark properties for over 100 years.  The elegant layout of the advertisement attempts to make the conclusion that Taj Hotels must be five-star hotels.  If "all of New York is talking," then this hotel must be noteworthy.  

It also uses the "need for aesthetic sensations" for its appeal because our eyes are drawn to the black and white picture and we immediately think, "This must be classy."  Seeing pictures like these are like going back in time to the "good old days."  Our eyes are attracted to the dark dress of the woman in the middle because it stands out against the light background.  The elegant font only adds to the feeling of class and we are drawn to the idea that The Pierre hotel is indeed very polished.  Does this make us want to stay in The Pierre?  It may, if you prefer this elegant style (which many of us do).