Fleet Foxes- Album Advert

This image that we have chosen to de-construct with the four micro elements is an advert selling the release of Fleet Foxes' new album Fleet Foxes.

As the new album is named after the band, less space is given up telling the audience both the album title and the band name, therefore more space is given up for other important aspects such as the album cover. Another advantage of this is also that the simplicity of the album name means that it will remain in the memory of anyone who sees it as they will not have to remember both the artists and the album name as they are the same. Another striking title on the page is the statement 'THE ALBUM OF THE YEAR' which gains a large amount of the audiences attention as it is the second biggest font on the page and it is a rather bold statement which can be used as anchorage as the audience will remember those words whenever they see the album, which may therefore improve sales of the album. The following pieces of text on the advert are quotes and awards from well known magazine companies which is typical within many album adverts as it proves that the band as well as the album have already been successful among many highly esteemed companies and gives them a higher status and the audience a higher incentive to want to buy the album. The smaller font towards the bottom of the page give the audience the pieces of information which are not necessarily the most important compared to the others however they still have their uses as they tell us the website address, release date and availability of the song. These pieces of information are common within adverts as they are the extra pieces of knowledge which some people may want to know, however their size and placement connotes their lesser importance and inferiority compared to the other pieces of text, therefore they are often looked over and not the primary focus.

The chosen colours of the advert are rather simplistic as the font is white on a black background which has multiple meanings, effects and advantages. For example, due to the simplistic nature the focus is aimed towards the text as well as the album cover, which is exactly what the company want as they pay attention to the important factors of the advert rather than getting distracted by other elements of the page, which is why the least important information is put in much smaller font. Another benefit that it gives is that the font is easy on the eye as the colours do not clash, which makes it much easier for any one to read therefore making it much more appealing as they will be more likely to read it all. There are also some connotations associated with this simplicity, including the fact that it may show their type of music as the typical conventions of folk music are traditional and classic means of music with simple instruments such as banjos and double bass which aren't common in any other genres of music. Therefore this style of writing and background has many different functions within the advert.

The next piece of the advert which has a large significance is the actual album cover which is situated virtually centre of the advert which draws a large amount of attention which is its main purpose as the audience need to know what they are buying. The image chosen for the album cover is rather unique in comparison to  a wide number of other album covers as this one is an old fashioned style painting of what seems to be a lively village setting which has no connection to the band or the title, however the image may again connote their style of music as the image is set long ago which may show the traditional values of their music which are commonly associated with folk music. On the other hand though, most albums usually illustrate the whole band or some of their artists on the cover as it lets the audience put a face to the voices as well as allowing them recognise them in the future, however this image is different as it gives no information about the band themselves which creates a sense of mystery among the audience. The colours used in the cover picture are both bland yet bright as they are a mixture of browns, greens, yellows, blues and reds which give a rather plain feel to the image, yet it stands out in the advert as the background is black which means that the audience are able to pay a lot of attention to the cover as it catches their eye due to its dominance in the advert.