Image Analysis Essay

Men’s magazines feature articles concerning topic of interest to their subscribers: alcohol, sports cars, hunting and fishing, politics, scientifc and technological breakthroughs, travel, and dating. Some also boast of interviews with the rich and famous and of short stories by popular writers. You can expect there to be jokes and cartoons too mostly about sexul matters. The main hit of such magazines isn’t the news, advice, humor, or fiction, but the photographs of beautiful young women wearing little or no clothing and such pictures are men’s magazine’s strongest selling point. Humor can be used to make the sales pitch so much the better but when it comes to promoting men’s magazines nothing sells as well as sex, as marketors for men‘s magazines are well aware. To sell a men’s magazine, this Ché advertisement in a magazine uses a metaphor to equate the product to a “better” dream world and shows a young woman approaching a train station.

There is text at the bottom of the advertisment, which is smaller than the message on the model’s skirt, indcating that the advertisement wants to draw their reader’s attention to the young woman first and then to the fine print at the bottom. “Let us keep on dreaming of a better world.” Is what the fine print says. Now the way that it is said makes the advertisment have a playful tone, suggesting that the “better world” would be a fun place to be, and the fun would be of a sexual intimate kind. Which is a use of the Pathos form of persuasive tactics. Because it plays on the emotions of men by making them think about this dream, fantasy world that is supposed to be better than the world is right now.

It’s not Ethos because there is no real ethical persuasion going on and it’s not Logos because there are no facts presented in this advertisement. Following the fine print is the logo that identifies the product that the advertisement is selling Ché, a men’s magazine. The model seems to represent the sort of fantasy girl that the magazine is probably going to feature on a regular basis. By purchasing or subscribing to this magazine, customers gain access to the “better world” of fun-loving, available dream girls.

The female model is shown from behind, so that the viewer is encouraged to see her as an object rather than as a person. Her face is not shown. Therefore, the emphasis of the picture is on her body, rather than her face, on the physical rather than the personal. She is an object, rather than a person. She wears a simple, green top that exposes the lower part of her stomach, a charm bracelet, and a white mini-skirt. A small simple black purse is on her right shoulder. She is the largest object in the picture, and she is the closest to the middle of the photo, her positioning within the picture like her size emphasizing her over everything else that is shown in the advertisement.

The color and setting of the ad have a lot to do with making this advertisement better. First off the color of the ad is darker around the edges than it is in the center which is no coincidence because the most important part of this ad, the model is in the middle which draws more attention to her than anything else in the picture. There is quite a bit of color overall in the ad which helps not make this ad boring.

The setting is important as well. It’s at a train station with not much around it. There are no buildings or cars or even any other people, again drawing all of the attention to the girl since she is really the only interesting thing in the photograph. Second to the young woman herself, the most outstanding prop in the picture is her skirt. It is short enough to reveal the lower parts of her butt which is bare suggestng that she either wears a thong or no underwear at all. The exposure of these parts of her draws the attention to her, as does the apparent fringe that is on the bottom of her skirt, some of the tassels of which are missing revealing the parts of her butt. There is something else weird about the fringe. The tassels which are short, strips that have printed text on them that is too little to read. However, near the bottom of her skirt in red lettering below it is an arrow pointing downward is the message, “My number.” This message makes it clear to the advertisement’s viewer that the text printed on the tassels is her phone number.

Her skirt itself is an advertisement to those who are interested in the product or the service that the advertisement promotes saying that anyone who is interested may respond. Essentially, the model is saying “Call me.” The model is approaching a train station, which symbolizes the connection that she intends to make with the train that will take her to her destination. The train represents opportunity. The model is approaching the station. If the viewer were present he might meet her and if he were to join her on the train it might take them to a common destination. The silent text of the advertisement seems to be “Don’t miss the train!” and it might make any guy who reads it look at it and say; “Maybe I should start taking the train more if beautiful young women take the train” sort of a false advertisement for picking up girls at a train station.

Overall it represents a call to action or the selling point. If advertisements are any indicator of what people enjoy nowadays it seems safe to say that men and women are interested in vastly different types of things. Advertisements in women’s magazines indicate that women are interested in spotless kitchens, a healthy, family, a clean home, clothing and accessories, travel, interior design, furniture, and business careers. Men’s magazines’ advertisements suggest that their readers’ interests are fewer by far and simpler: food, sex, and cars.