Magazine Adverts

Judas Priest - Nostradamus

Magazine advert

This is a full A4 advert published on the back cover of the famous rock/metal magazine ‘Metal Hammer’ displaying an advert for the album ‘Nostradamus’ by the heavy metal band ‘Judas Priest’. The magazine itself is aimed at people who are into rock and metal music. This sort of audience usually has associations with things like Evil, Rebellion, Black and other dark colours and generally going against social norms. Looking at these associations the advert is shown to accommodate for them by being generally dark and fairly evil looking. The colours used predominantly are red/orange and black; both these colours compliment each other well with the red against the black looking very vibrant. The reds have a look to them similar to fire, the background is difficult to establish what it is, but it could be trying to show the idea of ‘Hell’ as it seems to be set underground with fire, skulls, bodies and evil glowing eyes. There is also in the background what seems to be somebody being crucified.
This ties in with the album name as the word Nostradamus is the name of a very famous French philosopher of the 15th century who was known for his predictions of major word events. His prophecies usually linked with the alleged ‘Bible code’ so the crucifixion could represent Jesus on the cross. The bands name being ‘Judas Priest’ also has obvious religious links with Judas being the disciple that betrayed Jesus and a priest obviously a leader in a religious group.
Centred on the advert is a image of Nostradamus himself, who is imposed on front of an image of some sort of space scene, this could have a meaning that things he predicted were beyond human understanding.
The band is a fairly old band being formed in 1969 and gained the nickname ‘Metal Gods’.
Because of their age they have fans from a variety of eras, this means they have to make the advert appealing to all of their fans. To do this the article has the bands name in large writing, the font of which resembles the writing style of that found on a bible. This will allow any fans to instantly recognise the bands name and immediately be interested as they will know it is about a band they like. Psychological studies have shown that females when looking at an advert pay attention to detail whereas males look for simplicity, this advert appeals to both as it has the core information of the albums release in bold for males and also specific detail for females, obviously this assumption isn’t true for all males and females.
The key information shown is: Band Name, Album Name, Release date, available purchase options and formats, website and where it can be bought.

The advert is split into two with the majority of the information placed within a black box separate from the main image. The words “New Album out June 16th” is written at the top of the black box as it is fairly important and it is also written in a gold colour, this gold could convey that the band considers the album to be like gold which gives the audience a sense of value for money. The more important information is shown in larger font which is the formats which it’s available in, they are: Double CD, Digital Download, Limited edition deluxe double CD and a 3 Vinyl deluxe box set. It shows also in gold again the bonus things that accompany the main album such as hard-bound book and exclusive posters.
The wording used in the avert is clever as it aims to make the reader feel as if the album is extremely special and is hard to get, so better get one quick. This is done by the use of words like “Limited Edition” and “Exclusive”. Using the word limited edition helps to make the reader feel special as if they are the only ones being offered this. The language used is trying to persuade the reader to buy, as written above it tries to emphasise the benefits of the purchase, in this particular advert this is achieved mainly through a sense of getting a lot for your money with words like “AND” which suggest you’ll get more than what you’re paying for.
With this genre of music the normal stereotypes of the people who buy the music usually like to buy actual hard copies of albums rather than digital downloads, that is why on this advert it emphasised the available formats that are hard copies such as the vinyl and the CD.
The last part of the avert is the website of the band at the bottom of the page, it is given a small section and also on either side in small there are two logos, on the left a small logo of the bands record company ‘Colombia’ and on the right in white the famous logo for the online music and other media store, play.com which also conveniently has the words “Free delivery on everything” this once again is another persuasion tactic to increase sales.

After looking at this advert and doing more research into it I found that the main image used in the advert is the exact same of that of the album cover that is being advertised itself. Also in one of the music videos produced for a song on the album titles 'War' the first image, and others throughout reflect that of the album cover. This is not only interesting in the way images in the videos are used on the covers but also the adverts themselves.

This is a screenshot of the opening image shown in the video for 'War' it is very similar to the image on the advert and cover.

This is shown in many other music videos and albums. For example, by the rock band 'Distrubed' and their album 'Ten Thousand Fists In The Air' in the video of one of the songs on the album called 'Land of confusion' the album artwork style and similar images are used like the ones in the video.

This is the cover for the album 10,000 Fists

From this cover you can see the similarities from it and the video with the character at the front in the black hood is featued in the video, as is the other people in the background. As you can see the way the people have their fists in the air, this goes along with the album name and also in the video they are shown to do this

Conventially rock bands are usually accociated with rebellion. The song lyrics and video to 'Land of confusion' both depict rebellion as it is about the people of the world rebelling against the government and money making organisations going along with the normal conventions in the music industry.

This is another advert in a magazine, this time advertising a concert for the band 'The Killers' at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

• The font used to spell out the word 'Killers' forms each letter using little circles. This style is used on their album covers, such as 'Hot Fuss' and is typical of The Killers.


• The circles used could also represent their name up in lights as the little circles look like the shape of a spot light, so by having the bands name formulated out of these circles it suggests the bands name status as worthy of being up in lights.
  
• The little circle shape is also used all around the Albert hall which is centered in the screen, this could represent the way the killers are going to swarm the Royal Albert hall, these specific circles are in the colour purple which usually is associated with royalty


• The Royal Albert hall is a famous venue and having the world 'Royal' helps to raise the status of the band.
  
• The advert has several bold statements throughout such as 'All the greatest hits' and then a few bullet pointed names of their most well known songs. Using the word 'greatest' again also makes the band sound even better. By also using the word "All" it gives the impression of value for money, so saying to the reader, "Your not just getting some of the greatest hits on this album, your getting ALL of them" which will help with the sale as the reader will feel good because they think they are getting a good deal.
  
• The circle shape is so prominent in the advert being shown everywhere, with the bullet points being circles, in the bottom right corner there is a circle symbol.

• On either side of the Royal Albert hall which is centered in the screen, is images of palm tree's and cacti, this could be interpreted in two ways, firstly it could be associated with their music videos which are usually set in a destination which has these around them such as their video to the famous song 'Human'. It could also be interpreted as, palm tree's are usually thought of to go along with a holiday, on holiday people have fun, therefor at The killers concert the audience will also have fun.
  
• There are statements on the advert which are in smaller font to suggest that the content is less important than that in larger text. Things in smaller were like the website address.

• In the centre of the advert below the famous image of the Albert Hall, its a few of the bands most well known songs which will allow any fans to relate to the advert and inadvertently be more interested. Because some of the songs they listed such as "Mr Brightside" are so famous, it is likely that even non fans would have heard of it before and again this familiarity would get more interest.

This is the artwork for one of the bands previous albums called 'Hot Fuss' looking at the font style of the band name it is exactly the same as that of the album which the band is advertising to tour in the advert, this is a common trait in this sort of genre for the band to keep the font style the same throughout.

This is the album itself called 'The Day and Age' see how it is exactly the same background as that of the advert except without the albert hall on it.

As mentioned above ragarding the spot lights and also the desert setting in the videos, this is a screen shot from the song 'Human' taken from the album 'The Day and Age' and in this is shows clearly in the bacground, spotlights on the band looking very similar to the shape used on the album background and band name and also the setting is in a desert which is what the setting appears to be on the album cover and advert also.