Rihanna, Rated R Advert Analysis

This advert is for pop and r’n’b artist Rihanna’s album Rated R. Straight away it becomes evident that this

will not be child friendly pop songs because of the name of the album. Rated R implies explicit content as it is the classification used to classify material that contains adult only

content.

The colour scheme on the advert also implies a darker nature to the album.

The colour scheme contains black, white and red. The black and white create a sharp contrast, the colour white represents life, while black

represents death, creating a binary opposition. The red on the advert also

implies violence and bloodshed, reinforced by the names of a song on

the poster, ‘russian roulette’.

The artists appearance is not typical of a pop artist either, instead of child friendly colours and themes, this

advert is much darker and the artists clothing reflects this. Compared to her

earlier pop looks of flowing dresses and bright pink hair, Rihanna has

changed her hair style, colour and is now wearing black clothing all

implying that this album is edgier then anything that she released before.

The Guttenberg design principle has been used on this advertisement. The

picture of the artist making direct address has been placed in the

primary optical area. This is the first place that the viewer would look and the direct address would immediately

entice the viewer and make them want to find out more about the

album

The font styles are all clear and bold and are easy to read, easily informing the viewer what product is being sold. The photography on this advert does

make it appear as a mug shot. The photo at the top with a block of

information at the bottom looks like a police mug shot and shows the

audience that Rihanna is now more rebellious than before.

On the advert the artist is hiding half of her face with her hand. This creates

a mysterious feel to the advert and would intrigue the audience making

them want to find out more. The hiding half of her face suggests hidden secrets enticing the audience in to find

out what these secrets are.