Analysing a professional Magazine Ad

Britney Spears is an extremely popular and well known musician, singer and actress. She is considered the princess of pop and has had many number one singles over the past 15 years. The image above is a magazine ad for an album she released in 2008. The album is called ’Circus’ has a fun and quirky pop/dance feel around it and is quite shows different sides to the artists personality. The imagery of the album is very much themed around a circus and the goings on in one.
I really like this magazine advert as it is quite eye catching and fun and has an original idea around it as well as looking professional. The magazine ad, like the album, encompasses a circus theme in which the magazine ad replicates an actual circus poster. The magazine ad uses an eye catching yet classic colour scheme of cream, red, mustard yellow and blue and this gives the ad a realistic yet vintage style which circus posters traditionally have. The font used is very bold and vintage styled in order to grab the eye of the viewer and again replicates the font used on a traditional styled circus poster. Britney’s name appears very large and in bold 3D lettering a quarter of the way down the image, with the album name and other info in smaller letters underneath in order to catch the viewers eye first. To emphasise this circus theme and portray a real circus poster the magazine ad features a vintage baroque pattern which is placed at the top and bottom of the ad drawing the text inbetween it together and giving the poster a classic touch. It also has 3 stars which appear either side of the release date of the new album, highlighting it and again replicating the traditional conventions of a circus poster. This whole grouping of text is featured within a border which again helps to draw the viewer’s eye towards the lighter coloured background and text in the middle of it.

Britney’s record label’s logo also appears in the top left hand corner of the magazine ad along with the entertainment industries logo in the right hand top corner. Both of these give the magazine a professional feel but still remain subtle and part of the poster by the colour they are presented in. Her website address is also featured for publicity and easy accessibility to fans. An extra is also added to the magazine ad in the right hand bottom corner of the magazine ad in a scroll shape. This contains quirky phrase and number for fans to call Britney, suggesting that she is the performer, but is a pun in order to follow the conventions of a proper circus poster and have fun with the concept.

Overall, I find this magazine ad extemely successful as it a really original and fun idea that follows the theme and concept of her new album. This is important as it enables fans and the public to be able to identify her work. I also like the fact that the magazine ad has a unique idea and is not just a posey image of the artist herself, like the work of other pop artists and find it really interesting.