[MP] Deconstruction of digipak/advertisement

The Kooks - 'Junk of the Heart'

Genre
The indie rock genre of the artist is evident mainly in the image of the girl on this advertisement. She has raised arms, a jacket that appears too small and very messy hair, spread all over her face perhaps by the wind. The messy hair especially has strong connotations of going against the grain and of being a rebellious youth. 


Furthermore, although the advert has obviously been created in photoshop (or similar) it has been done in an imperfect way. There seems to be over-exposure on the image of the girl, giving the effect that her colour bleeds onto the canvas which is the base effect of this advert. Also, the painted area to the right is quite scruffy, with rough brush strokes and unmixed colours. This all contributes to the DIY attitude that has been taken on by many indie rock bands.


Media Language
The rule of thirds is followed by this advert, which makes sense as the rule of thirds makes the audience feel comfortable with what they are consuming, therefore encouraging them to make a purchase. The title of the album and the exclamation of it being new sit on the junction of the line of the upper third and of the left side. This starts off the dominant reading path, which also plays its part in constructing an advert which is comfortable to read. The girl is centred on the diagonally opposite junction of lines, leaving a slight gap for the eye to jump across and follow the reading path. Only the words 'click here to buy' do not follow the rule of thirds, perhaps keeping the commercial aspect of the advert out of the way of the audience to keep them in their comfort zone. 


On another point, the text is presented in white, creating a strong contrast to the deep blue background. Also, the album name 'Junk of the Heart' is much bigger in size and is on top of all the other text, revealing maybe that the album is more important to the band than the commercial sales of it.


The album title 'Junk of the Heart' could connote that the new album is much more personal to the individual band members than the previous two albums. 
There are no obvious references to popular culture in this advert, emphasising the desire of the band to be completely different from anyone else, which has been present since they became a band at college in Brighton.  


Representation
The band are here represented as young, do-anything musicians. This is shown by the messy hair and arms in the air of the girl in the advertisment. In Dyer's terms, the band is absent from the advert entirely. This ensures the incoherence of the bands' image to their audience, meaning that the audience will strive to complete the image by means of consumption of the star and their products. The band are also constructed to be quite extraordinary, with the eretheral glow around the girl on the advert giving a heavenly feel to the banner. 


Institution and Audience
This advert would be consumed via Web 2.0. It is obvious that this is a website banner as the text in the bottom left of the advert reads 'click here to buy'. However, the background image is a cropped portion of the album cover, meaning that the image would also be consumed in high street shops such as HMV. The image would also become familiar to the audience in this way, reinforcing the association of the image with the band.