SC: Brandon Flowers Magazine Advert

Product Analysis
Magazine Advert: Brandon Flowers – Flamingo

Brandon Flowers is a member of the band ‘The Killers’ and this is his debut album going solo. This magazine advert consists of one main image filling the page, with the artist and album title on top of the image along with reviews on the album.
This magazine advert follows common conventions associated with magazine adverts for albums, it is also very different from the last two magazine adverts analysed, as this is Brandon Flowers’ debut album whereas the two before were established artists.
The main image itself is a silhouette of Brandon Flowers in the middle of the shot, with his back turned to the camera, surrounded by white. The silhouette figure is often associated with mystery and creates a sense of enigma within the audience that draws the audience in to read more about the album. The silhouette also suggests that he is entering the unknown, representing his solo career and his disassociation with ‘The Killers’. This is emphasised by the fact that he is walking away from the camera, alone. The white background creates a contrast between the silhouette and background making it more noticeable to the audience.
The layout adds to the solo theme, with Brandon being positioned directly in the middle of the shot, both emphasising the representation of his solo career and representing the fact that he is now the star of the show and the focus point for the audience.
The artist name is at the top of the advert in bold black writing to draw in any readers that are fans of The Killers. The bold writing itself is very simple and keeps to the house style of the advert. Below are the album title (‘Flamingo’) and several reviews from established newspapers and magazines. These reviews are common conventions of album advertisements, especially on debut albums such as this. Other albums (such as the two analysed before this) feel they are established enough to not need these reviews, however, this advert uses the complimentary reviews as a selling point and presents them in bold to stand out to the reader.
The final common convention of album adverts in this particular advert is the emblems across the bottom of the retailers who sell the album. These stand out along the bottom of the advert promoting the album and making the audience aware of where it can be bought.