Journal Entry Seventeen: Advertisements & Color

Secret Sheer Mineral Deodorant
The color gold consumes this advertisement. It is known to evoke the feeling of prestige. The meaning of gold is illumination, wisdom, and wealth and it often symbolizes high quality. These are all characteristics that I believe Secret intentionally wants to associate their product with. The color is seen everywhere including the background, the woman’s dress, and even on the packaging of the product. They want to show that their product has been well formulated by people with knowledge and wisdom of what they are doing. The advertisement is trying to illuminate or shine light upon their product. They want to make it the center of attention and inspire hope among their readers. They also want to emphasize that their product is high quality and will be worth buying. The color white is also used but, I do not think it is to evoke a specific message. It is used just because it is a good contrast to the overpowering gold in the advertisement. Gold is found somewhere in the range of the three analogous colors: orange, yellow-orange, and yellow. White is a result of the three additive colors: red, green, and blue. When these colors are overlapped a white light is produced. The colors used in this advertisement work very well to evoke a certain feeling with the deodorant.

409 All Purpose Cleaner
The primary color of this advertisement is red. The color red has multiple meanings. It has a very high visibility so it works effectively here to quickly grab the reader’s attention. It is also known to stimulate a person to make quick decisions which is very useful in the sense that they want people to buy their all purpose cleaner immediately. Orange is the color chosen for the text in the advertisement. Orange is associated with traits such as enthusiasm, fascination, happiness, determination, attraction, success, encouragement, and stimulation. These are all characteristics that any company would want to associate their product with. They want to show enthusiasm and happiness with the quality of their product. They are also encouraging and stimulating the reader to want to purchase the product. Red and orange are analogous colors meaning they are right next to each other on the color wheel. The colors used within this advertisement definitely work.