Codes & Conventions of Newspaper Advertisements

Codes and Conventions of Newspaper Adverts

One section of my coursework consists of creating a newspaper advert to promote my TV teen channel. Therefore I have carried out some research into the possible codes and conventions of newspaper adverts. The codes and conventions are overall used to grab the attention of the reader. Advertisements usually are short, notable slogans, (such as "I'm Lovin It" and "Just Do It") bright colours and photographs to make the advertisements stand out and different to others you may find. Some companies use celebrities to promote their products, for example, Sky uses Emma Bunton and Lisa Snowdon to promote Sky+ and 'True Match' by L'Oreal use Eva Longoria and Beyonce to promote their makeup (seen above). The pictures are often in colour and refer to the theme and audience of the advertisement. For example, The True Match review shown above sticks to neutral skin colours, reflecting the natural feel and look of the product. Captions are also used to give the advertisement meaning. Logos are just as memorable as Slogans, which is the main aim of advertisements. When a new television channel is being advertised in a newspaper there is a variety of information displayed such as, the channel number for sky and free view, details on what you can expect to see and possibly a description of trailers of up and coming shows for the channel.

Codes and Conventions of double spread magazine advertisements.

There is always one main image which gets direct address from the audience. The main image can be the background of the article with text at the top, or one half of the article is the main image that can bleed between the pages. The headline of the article is usually short and catchy and is usually in a stylistic font. The headline is used to draw the reader in without telling the audience what the article is about immediately. Quotes are sometimes used in the headline or the picture or in the stand first to break up the text. There is usually a simple and minimal colour scheme, usually the text which is used purely for information purposes is about 11pt as it is not needed to draw people in, this text usually contains the legal and copyright notes. Techniques used to draw the reader in are usually bold texts, slightly bigger type style, capitals for the first few words. These adverts are typically laid out into four columns.