media language

How is media language used to communicate meaning?

Maybelline presents ‘Magic Mascara’

The use of alliteration is apparent throughout the whole of the advertisement. For example, the actual mascara is called ‘Magic Mascara’. The effect of the repeated ‘m’ sound almost creates a smooth singing effect. The brand, Maybelline also carries the ‘m’ sound, which makes the brand and product more memorable to the audience. The advertisement uses adjectives to describe the mascara and the effect it has, ‘lovely’, and ‘magic’. These are quite feminine adjectives as when this advertisement was produced makeup was only for woman and would have never been advertised to a male audience.

The colour red is the colour of the mascara bottle, the colour of the woman’s lipstick and her nail colour. The colour red connotes passion and love. The common red theme could show women to look ‘sultry’ to satisfy men, reflecting the 1960/70’s view of women, constantly having to please men. also, the colour red is a very bright and vibrant colour could grab an audience’s attention and make the mascara memorable. The other products mentioned in the ad are to make ‘the perfect eye’ are all red too, possibly in the hope to sell all these products together.

The main image taking up the majority of the AD is a woman with perfect makeup, blonde hair, eyes, nails, lips showing the stereotypical woman and Maybelline are reinforcing this idea of perfection in women. Also the woman's gesture is very happy and smiley whilst holding the mascara suggesting that the mascara is the reason behind her happiness. The way she is holding the mascara is very proudly, almost as if it's a trophy. 

The general layout of the AD follows the simple z line. You go from the magic mascara to the spiral brush to the image to the quick and snappy quotes about the mascara. The AD is drowning in brightness, with the large red theme, the yellow background and her beaming bright eyes showing off the mascara.