Advertising Designers Are Presented With a Particular

Advertising designers are presented with a particular challenge when the focus of the advertisement is an artistic product. Unlike those which are meant to sell food, household products, or even luxury items, ads that promote an artistic work like music must find a way to not only stick in the heads of viewers but also to be artistically pleasing and representative of the artistic vision of the creator of the featured piece.

People who drink soda or buy shoes are not necessarily going to be swayed by the subtle visual intricacies of a Pepsi or Nike ad as long as there is a cultural or need-based appeal. If the consumer feels that Pepsi, for example, will quench thirst, then the ad was effective.

However, in order for a music ad to be effective, it must find a way to appeal to the inner art critic and somehow present a visual representation of the appeal of the music, which may be considered an emotional or spiritual need, but remains outside the reach of the basic "food, clothing, and shelter" appeals. One advertisement that rather effectively promotes music is that for the band The Cruxshadows, for the album Wishfire, which appeared in Orkus music magazine in September, 2002.

This is an effective advertisement because of the use of color, identification of the band members with the music, and overall visual appeal. The Wishfire ad has a very unique color scheme. The background is starkly white, like an overexposed photograph. Likewise, all whites in the image are intensely pale, creating a balance between the background and the models. The whiteness creates a surreal environment, like one would expect to see in an alien abduction or Hollywood encounter with God. However, the image is far from washed out.

The text of the band name is not a black, but rather very subtle tones of grays and violets. Although all of the band members are obviously wearing black clothing, the colors of the clothing is nonetheless rich and varied. All of the fabric appears to be either texturally appealing or tinted with hints of other colors. The hair of each band member is different: red, purple, off-white, and blue-black, yet none of these air colors appear strange within the visual environment of the photo.

In fact, the hair colors in a way bring together the rest of the image. The red hair of the female on the far left brings out the red of her lips, the purple hair of the female in the back-center position brings out the violet tint on the fabric of the front-most figure's clothing; the very subtle bluish tint of the front model's hair matches the color of the other band member's vinyl clothing where the light reflects off of it. Additionally, each.