This advert for the release of Ed Sheeran’s new Album ‘+’ is obviously very simple and clear. The construction of this advert is carefully thought out to appeal to the artists target audience and let them know about the album.
Firstly, the colour scheme is extremely effective, as it uses a minimum amount of colours to ensure it appears simple but effective. The majority of the advert is made up of a distinctly bright orange, which at first glance is extremely eye catching and could be recognised anywhere. The colour is used as part of Ed’s ‘image’, and is a play on his hair colour. The fact that he has ginger hair is majorly exploited as a selling point and recognisable feature throughout his representation in various forms of media. For example at gigs, bright orange filters are used on the lighting to give the stage an orange glow, and catchy lyrics related to his hair are used in his songs. Also, a lot of the Ed Sheeran merchandise that his record label (Atlantic – Warner) sells is orange. This recurring colour scheme is used to allow fans of the artist to instantly know when something is related to Ed. The fact that the only other colours on the advert are black and white or ‘monochrome’ (and not any other distracting colours) means that a contrast can be created in order for the text to stand out, without detracting from the main colour and familiarity.
The ‘type-writer’ style font is used to give off a simple and humble image, and has been slightly stylised and given ‘scruffy’ edges to make it appear almost hand-made and personal, as well as giving the impression that the artist is dedicated to his fan-base and appreciative. The text has been positioned from the centre down in order to leave a lot of empty orange space at the top so as not to take anything away from the image. The word ‘click’ is underlined to show the audience that they can click the word to buy the album, and adds an interactive element to the advert. Different fonts are used at the bottom for the retailers to enable the audience to recognise these brand/retail logos; however the same scruffy stylising is used to keep these logos within the theme and image of the advert. The text ‘Out now’ makes the audience aware of the albums availability, and the fact that the text ‘the no1 album’ has been used shows the sheer popularity of it, making it seem even more appealing by showing that a lot of people like it and bought it.
The image on the advert, which is the taken from the artwork on the album cover, simply depicts the face of the artist Ed Sheeran. Again, this picture of his face is constructed using only gradients of orange and white so as to stay strictly within the boundaries of the artist’s star image and the colour scheme of the advert/album. Ed’s face fades away in the orange of the background, which may have been done to create a sense of ambiguity and make him look dark and mysterious. This technique, combined with his ‘cheeky’ and partly alluring facial expression and the lighting on the image, makes the artist appear somewhat ‘sexy’ via non-verbal communication and this mysterious façade will be extremely appealing to the mass female proportion of his target audience.
This image (which was a photo of the artist) has been edited in such a way that it looks almost hand-drawn and sketchy. Again this gives the cover a personal feel and makes it appear somewhat handmade; which could make the consumer feel special. The fact that the image has been taken in such a way that it appears as though the artist is actually looking directly at you also adds a personal feel, and again could make the consumer feel unique and allow them to relate to the image. No obvious make-up or costume has been used, and if it has then the editing has been used to mask this, making the artist appear fairly natural. This gives it a ‘humble’ look and specifically makes the artist not appear fake or ‘made-up’. Again fans can relate to this as it gives the impression that Ed Sheeran is just a normal human being.
