Analyzing a Car Advertisement

Analyzing a Car Advertisement

The advert is from the coloured supplement of the Sunday Times on 10th

November 2002. I will analyse this car advert and write about its key

concepts and the global market to which it belongs.

A family car is the main image surrounded by colourful play balls, the

ones you get in childrens play-pits. This represents a safe family car

because it is embedded in play balls. It also represents the child in

every responsible parent that wants to join their children in the

play-pit and have as much fun as them. It is represented in this way

to show the audience that this car is a safe car. When children are

left at the crèche they are in a safe place. In the crèche there's a

ball-pit allowing the children to have fun jumping about without

harming themselves. Associations with ball-pits are; fun, freedom,

colourful, excitement, playful. The connotations are safety and being

looked after. The image is portraying a safe child having fun in a

ball-pit.

The text is mainly addressed to parents, but can include grandparents

and any other adults responsible for children in a car. The audience

may receive this text positively because it will make them think about

safety when purchasing a car, a family car. People buy cars when they

need to. They are such an expense that the decision on which car to

buy isn't taken lightly. Peugeot are trying to pull the audience

toward the safety features of their cars; implying if this car is

brought then your family will be safe or safer.

Peugeot are hoping the image will make the audience go to a Peugeot

dealer, where a trained salesperson will then step in and sell the

car. The audience will read the safety aspect of the text and will

then carry on and read the copy at the bottom of the advert. Peugeot

are cleverly pulling on the heartstrings of caring parents. They reach

out to the responsible parent/s by using the strap line "where you

know the kids are safe" The copy at the bottom of the advert, in