Miss Dior

This is a magazine advertisement for the branded perfume Miss Dior, by Dior. The advertisement would most probably be included in women’s magazines, as the product that is being promoted is targeted at females. To be more appealing to the target audience of the perfume, an image of Natalie Portman has been featured, filling most of the advert. The image of Natalie shows her in a mid-shot, looking over her shoulder and straight into the camera. As she looks directly into the camera, it makes the audience think that she is looking directly at them, forming direct address to the audience. The use of direct address makes the audience feel important as the high status celebrity and actress is looking at them, which therefore encourages them to purchase the item being promoted. The image of Natalie also shows us that she has got very natural and flawless make-up on, her hair styled, and a small section of a black dress can be seen on her. Her beautiful appearance and attire is desirable by the target audience, which when linked to the perfume, makes the audience believe that by purchasing and wearing the perfume, they will in return look and feel like Natalie Portman. Again, this is another way that the magazine advert draws the audience in and encourages them to purchase the perfume. In addition, Natalie is seen holding a bunch of light pink coloured roses, which again corresponds with the actress’ beauty, and therefore portrays to the audience that they will feel beautiful when wearing the perfume. Also, the roses are also in the image to portray to the audience that the perfume may smell of roses. This therefore encourages the audience to purchase the perfume as they like the smell of roses, and want to have a delicate and pretty smell. Roses are also expensive, which again makes the audience want to purchase the perfume as they want to feel expensive and classy. The text which is used in the magazine advert show the name of the perfume ‘Miss Dior’ is a sans-serif font in the very centre of the image which shows its importance. The text appears to look hand-written, with the text being joined and in italics. The font style seems very feminine which links to the image of Natalie Portman, and also links to the perfume item that is being promoted. Similar fonts are also typically used for high class and expensive items, which again makes the perfume seem more desirable to the audience. The colour of the main font is in a tonal black, with the colour black connoting class, sophistication and profession. This would then appear to be reflected within the perfume, making the audience assume that they gain these qualities when wearing the perfume, and again encouraging the audience to purchase the perfume. Below the main text is more text stating ‘Le parfum’, which is written in French and translates into ‘the perfume’. As this piece of text is written in a different language, it also makes the perfume seem more sophisticated to people who do not speak French as their first language. The French language is also associated with class, high status and feminism, which again makes the audience assume that they will gain these qualities once wearing the perfume. Plus, the brand Dior is a French company, which again emphasises the stereotypical French qualities that would be assumed when purchasing the perfume. This piece of text is of a much smaller size in comparison to the name of the actual perfume, and is positioned directly underneath the larger text. The same colour is used for the font, but a totally different capitalised, sans-serif font style is used. The reason for using a different font for this piece of text is to show the modern twist to the perfume. Below the text is an image of the perfume bottle itself, positioned in the centre of the whole magazine advert. The image of the perfume bottle has been included in the magazine advert to help promote the perfume even more, and makes the bottle more recognisable to the audience.