Image Analysis

Cars That Go!

In today’s fast-paced America the automobile is heavily relied upon to get us where we need to go. But how do we know which car to buy? Who tells us which one will get us there the fastest? The safest? The most efficiently? There are so many automobile ads being hurled at the average consumer’s face daily that it is nearly impossible to keep up with all the differences of each, unless of course you are car savvy. Advertising is a crucial tool in reaching today’s consumers. Many people are affected by ads without realizing it. In almost every magazine on the market today are thousands of ads targeted directly toward the specific consumer of which the magazine values. Ads are shaped and molded to fit the wants and desires of the targeted audience. For example, a car ad placed in Women’s Health aims to capture the health conscious, sporty, efficient woman on the go. Whereas a similar car ad placed in Filter magazine reaches out to the hip, young, artistic, musician, man or woman. Here we have two completely different target audiences with different values and lifestyles. Let’s do a little comparing to see what’s really going on.

In the image taken from Women’s Health our eyes are immediately drawn to the white Volkswagen convertible car on the right side of the two-page spread. The car rests on the one S-shaped road that starts on the right side of the pictures and curls back to the rear of the left page. Standing next to the car on the grass is the owner looking quite satisfied and happy. She is wearing grey slacks, a pink sleeveless sweater and sandals. She looks very in-shape. She is looking at a group of nine people, four men and five women ranging in ages possibly from 20 to 50, standing next to her performing Tai Chi, a low impact martial art. They all are staring straight ahead looking very focused on their task at hand. The scene appears to be set in a park and a lovely wall of trees guards the back of the image. You can barely see the sky poke though the trees in the upper left of the image. It is either dusk or dawn due to the hue of the sky. Directly behind the car is a sign, assumingly a stop sign, faced away from direct viewing of the image and to the right of it sits a yellow fir hydrant. Above the car says, “Experience the Eos.”

The second image,