1. A2 Media Studies
Advanced portfolio evaluation
Daniel Robbins | 8123 | 20956

2. 1. In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products?
In many ways our advert for our product follows the conventions of a stereotypical
perfume advert. The idea behind the two main adverts is to be classy and mysterious
whilst still promoting the product in a desirable way. Much like other adverts for this type
of product, such as the “J’ador” by “Dior” advert, we adopted a photography style shoot
for the sponsorship advert which focussed as much on the fashion and the actress in the
advert as much as the product. These are some ways in which we used the conventions
of a typical perfume add. However we further developed this by adding unique features to
our advert for example in the sponsorship advert the bottle is primarily the main focus of
the “photography shoot”. Unlike the other two visdual adverts where the actual product
often doesn’t make an appearance until towards the end of the ad.
Images taken from google.co.uk/images (03/05/2013)

3. We also took inspiration from adverts such as “1 Million” which are filmed entirely in black
and white for affect. We felt this fitted in with the theme of the product/advert. Our
fragrance is called “Diamonds” therefore we choose to look at other adverts that had
similar themes, styles and conventions. The typical conventions that we found in these
style adverts included things such as mystery, fast paced editing and an element of
sophistication/glamour. We established these conventions so that we could not only
adapt our adverts to challenge them but also to identify ways in which our advert could
enhance these conventions. One major way we did this was by featuring one main
character which was female.
Typical conventions that we followed in our entire advert campaign:
O Element of mystery
O Making the product appear desirable
O Use of narration and slogan at the end of the advert
In our radio advert one of the prominent focusses was the use of narration as this is the
only tool we could use to promote the product. Assisted with the “Diamonds” soundtrack
we used a series of narration to promote the product including what it’s key features are;
“The first glitter spray perfume” and “Shine bright like a diamond” were just a few of the
phrases used in our radio advert.

4. Most adverts of this nature adopt a female to be the main character that features through
the whole ad campaign. This is essential as it is reinforcing the target audience of the
product. By having a woman as the main character then women can relate to the advert
and will automatically feel fascinated by the product. We analysed the “Armani
Diamonds” advert to see what conventions their sequence consisted of.
In adverts such as this we
also found that although the
female character in the advert
was one of the preliminary
focusses the advert also had
a lot of emphasis of the
product itself.
Images taken from google.co.uk/images (03/05/2013)

5. Characters
Within our sponsorship and advert one there was only one character featured throughout.
The character was female so that we followed the conventions of these style adverts by
including a character of the same gender that the product is trying to appeal too.
In our radio advert we also used a female voice to narrate so that the product was
portrayed to be feminine and something that would appeal to women.
In advert two however, whilst a female character was prominent throughout the advert,
we also used a male character towards the end of the text to emphasise how the product
makes you desirable. In some ways we could argue that in this advert we slightly
challenged the conventions of adverts of this nature by including a male character;
however the male character was kept a mystery and his face was not shown through the
entirety of the advert.