ADVERT ANALYSIS (Pearl Jam - Backspacer)

This magazine advert for Pearl Jam's album 'Backspacer' shares the artwork from the album itself. The artwork consists of 9 very vibrant drawn images spaced in a three by three grid. The centre image is a brain inside what appears to be some kind of test tube. I personally get the impression that it is supposed to be alive and that the wires coming off it somehow connect it to the other images. It is not clear what the other images are supposed to represent, but I believe each image is some kind of dream or nightmare. For example when applying this theory, the top left image appears to be a child crying in front of a burning train, which could represent something that may be dear to the child outside the dream such as an actual small toy train he owns. The image in the centre of the top row appears to be a 3D diagram of the chest and head of a human body, something often associated with doctors surgeries or their rooms. There appears to be something casting a shadow over the image that we cannot see, to me it looks like a scalpel knife and this dream could be that of a person who is particularly afraid of having surgery done. Looking at all the other images it appears that anyone dreaming up the image is present within it, leading me to believe that the person conjuring up this nightmare is locked inside the 3D diagram of the chest and head of a human body, as it looks scared and not emotionless as it should do. The rest of the images, to me, seem like dreams and nightmares about becoming a magician, spying on a woman in the ocean, playing the drums in space, some kind of apocalyptic intergalactic war, becoming rather small and being indescribably comfortable in some sort of infinite mass of quilt. I think these images are used to evoke mystery and grab the audiences attention due to them being strange and unique and it gets the audience thinking what they could mean just as it has with me. 

The name of the band is in black at the top of the advert, with each letter surrounded by its own golden ring with a red fill. This brings the attention of the audience to the band name, which alerts them as to who the band is. Underneath the 9 images is the name of the album followed by 'THE NEW ALBUM' and 'OUT MONDAY'. the text below the images is yellow, which helps it stand out due to its contrast with the black background. the letters are also all capital which also helps it stand out. Because of the audiences attention is also drawn to these details, and then gain the opportunity to read the smaller text which reaches almost to the bottom of the advert. This text shows more details about the album such as the forms it comes in and extras you get with it and also shows comments from reviews from the magazines Q and The Guardian. Along the bottom of the advert are 3 websites, more than likely to show the audience where they can purchase the album.

This advert uses conventions well. First of all it has a black background, something that most adverts by alternative rock groups use. Secondly the images are very strange and are 'alternative' in themselves in the way that they are completely different to what mainstream artists would use on their adverts. The gold rings surrounding each letter at the top look rusty, which makes the audiencee think of metal, relating to the sound of the guitars that Pearl Jam use.