Assignment 4c

For the final part of assignment 4 we were to get together in a group and have a discussion on our findings from our interviews comparing on what we gained. The interviews we had all carried out were all quite varied but there were a few of us who had carried similar interviews.

When talking about why people would buy a magazine we talked about peoples interests, is it something they would look at for themselves or because other they know buy them? Such a topic we discussed was health awareness and how people would look at this to keep in shape and healthy. This is the type of magazine that would influence people to keep their bodies healthy. By looking at pictures of the models in this and the affect of what can happen to your body if you do not look after it can greatly influence people to do whatever they can to stay in shape. In these such magazine or tips on what to and what not to eat as well as exercises that people can do. They can look as someone and say I want to look like that.

It all generally depends on what peoples interests are that makes a person buy a magazine. Some buy it for the clothes, for the celebs, the models or the real life stories.

A major influence we all thought in advertising in general was fashion. If a man or women sees something in a magazine that is the fashion of the season such as stripes, they could see this and later when out and about could buy something with stripes just to be in the current style, even if it is not the exact dress or shirt the saw in the magazine, it has at this point influenced them to buy this.

We also talked about how celebrities are used in magazines to influence people. From this point we discussed how the public all want a better life, we all want to be something greater than what we are and think we can do this by looking through the life of a celebrity. People can look at a celebrities life and see that they look good and better off than them and they want what they have. If they see and item of clothing, a car, or if there is an image of the inside of their home, can see an item in it and think that something like that would look good in their home. The point is that it may not be the exact same item but something similar can make a person feel good about themselves. This is sort of what we as a group got or at least what I got out of the discussion.

Another topic we went over was the design of a company, such as Top Shop and New Look, they look the same and as we discussed the stores are all are most likely designed by influence of another designer from another popular store and try to base theirs on them. This is more copying their sort of style. Someone then mentioned that clothing from Gap and Tesco and a few other company's all use the same supplier and that the only difference between them were the pricing depending on the company.

Another thing we quickly went over was the fact that people are also influenced by the majority. They see what everyone else around them is wearing and doing. I even know this from personal experience as I have even done this myself, where I have bought an item of clothing because I have been influenced by someone or have seen it in something.

From this I have learned that everyone is influenced by advertising in one way or another, more are than others but are still influenced all the same. We cannot avoid it not matter how much we try, or how much we would deny it.