Katherine Brown- Final Spoof Ad

My spoof ad was based off of CoverGirl’s Exact Eyelights Mascara. Instead of eye makeup, I changed it to become CoverGrill Exact Look Grillifier. The idea here is a product that you can use on any food that would normally be grilled and add the marks of a fantastically grilled piece of food. Additionally, there are multiple flavors of Exact Look Grillifier that allow you to add different flavors to your food. I used photos I found on the web and personally edited them to create them to fit the CoverGrill look. CoverGirl’s logo was also used and edited to become CoverGrill.

a.) This ad was created to become a print ad in a magazine. I placed it in People Magazine with hopes to aim it at people that couldn’t quite cook as well as they want and like to dress things up to look better. I also created a printed billboard ad with images found on the web that I edited myself.

 b.) The main subject of the ad is the product itself, Exact Look Grillifier. The main focus is to show the product and its capabilities. I would say this is the only and main subject. The food shown in the ad is merely there just to show the ability of the main product.

 c.) Over all, the print ad is very geometric and set on a grid. The type “CoverGrill” frames in the rest of the text and the actual image of the product. The grill background creates diagonal lines that brings your eye right across the page to the description of the product. Additionally, the diagonal lines in the actual piece of meat point right toward the product.  For the billboard, I tried to keep the look of it simple while still portraying the product and its abilities. I kept the text aligned together on the right and kept the copy short and to the point. It’s very geometric keeping to a grid like form. 

 d.) Personally, I am not an avid user of lots of makeup but this was in no way a stab at makeup. I am not the best cook so I mainly found this to be a funny product for those out there like me that like the idea of cooking and what they lack in presentation, they can make up for in glamor. With the simple ability to paint on the look and taste of delicious flavor, a meal can go from being terrible to being delicious. As far as how my ad compares to others, I think it does pretty well. Like others, there is a sense of humor to it that allows people to laugh about it. I’ve also mimicked a specific ad, like many did, to try and get the same look and feel as my spoofed product. 

 e.) I found a specific CoverGirl ad to use as my main influence in this project. Before I found my main ad, I looked at many ads and found certain similarities that one would most definitely find in CoverGirl ad so I could maintain this similarity. I wanted the color pallet to be fluid throughout and not stray too far from original CoverGirl ads.  Given my topic, I think this all worked out very well.

 f.) My purpose was to advertise a silly product that would resemble CoverGirl but actually be completely different. I wanted to add humor in the fact that if you can’t cook it doesn’t matter, you can still create a wonderful meal. 

 g.) Overall, I think my ad is really successful. I was really able to keep the CoverGirl feel but with a completely different topic. I read that for makeup advertising, you must “sell an aspiration, escapism”(Hearst Communications Inc.). That is exactly what I aimed for here. Selling a product that makes up for what you are not able to do necessarily. I feel like the layout is very strong. Because I mimicked a real CoverGirl ad, the presentation of the product and the ability to see the results is very clear and understandable. Additionally, the copy is clean cut and just the right words are exaggerated. My weaknesses probably came in most with my billboard ad. Given the completely different dimensions, I found it harder working with such a large horizontal space and struggled to find that good flow.

Richards-Gustafson, Flora. "Advertising Techniques for Selling Makeup." Small Business. 2012. Web. 30 Apr. 2012. <http://smallbusiness.chron.com/advertising-techniques-selling-makeup-23584.html>.