The World of Diving

My room mate is taking scuba diving. She bought her $250-something worth of gear which is now pretty important to her and got a magazine out of it which became interesting to me. I was flipping through Sport Diver and found two ads that I thought would be cool to critique. The cool thing about Sport Diver is that its circulation is greater than just America. According to one of its many photographers, "Current circulation of Sport Diver Magazine is 175,000 internationally and it is the official publication of PADI, which is the world’s largest scuba diving and training certification agency."


Here are the two ads I chose:

 

• This ad uses fantasy effectively because it makes you think that if I was in that situation, I would need at least three layers (bottom right corner) to my wet-suit. In reality, most people that own wet-suits would not go on a dive like this. They may snorkel or dive a rock quarry, but nothing this extreme unless they had the money to do so. In which case, they would probably have a more expensive suit. I think it sells the thought that the diver would be more adventurous and get to go out and do more. It sells the experience too.

• I think this ad is effective because it applies the mask to an attractive woman. Her skin is glowing, her lips are plush and glossy and her nails are long and painted. These are all subtle clues that you can look like this woman or if you’re a man you can be with a woman who looks like this if you use this brand of goggles. Goggles are probably the most unattractive thing you can put over your eyes and this ad jazzes them up because of the sex appeal of the woman in it. For a magazine article it's also good with the text at the bottom to explain a little more about the goggles. Overall, a very effective ad.