The static image I have chosen to do a close reading on is an advertisement from Top Gear Magazine, which is a magazine printed in the UK. For a basic image of the advertisement, it shows that Paul Johnson is "checked in @ the bottom of the river Thames", implying that he was operating social media, most likely on his phone, while driving. This advertisement suggests that using social media while driving is a leading cause of death in the world. This serves as a wake up call for everybody, whether you have the ability to drive a car or not. This is just one of many advertisements out there that are geared towards preventing people from participating in distracted driving. This advertisement has a very affective message with three aspects: where it was printed, design of the article, and what it's overall message is.

For any advertisement, where it was printed has a lot to do with how affective it is. For this specific advertisement, it was printed in Top Gear Magazine. Top Gear Magazine is a magazine owned by BBC Worldwide, and all of the articles in it focus on automobiles. The name of the magazine comes from BBC's television show, Top Gear. The fact that this ad appears in an automobile magazine makes the purpose even more effective. The audience of this ad is aimed towards people operating cars. Placing this advertisement in an automobile magazine is an effective approach at reaching the most possible viewers, because people who read about cars most likely are the people operating cars. This is a good way of guaranteeing that the advertisement reaches the largest possible audience.

Another aspect that makes this advertisement very affective is the design of the advertisement. The location of text on the image is an extremely important thing to plan when designing an advertisement, especially one as effective as this. This sets the basis for how somebody is going to react to an advertisement, and what they will be left with thinking about. This advertisement is very basic, yet very effective. There is not much going on in the advertisement to attract the reader, other than the fact that it is a familiar concept. Not only are people familiar with the image of "checking in", but also with looking at maps as a whole. With the technology of this time, electronically maps have become easily accessible by almost everybody. People tend to "check in" on social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram, providing their current location at the time of the post. Not only are they putting their life at risk, but also everybody else who is on the road. "Driving and social media just don't mix" is a short and simple, yet effective, way of summing up this advertisement. The location of the text on the image also affects the way a viewer takes an advertisement. For this specific advertisement, the text is located in the bottom right corner, which does not attract the viewer's eye at first glance. This gives the viewer the opportunity to look at the advertisement as a whole before seeing the text. Immediately the viewer is drawn in by the "check in" location because majority of people are familiar with this idea. Once the viewer realizes that the person is "checked in @ the bottom of the river Thames.", he is confused and interested, and that is when he will notice the text at the bottom right corner which then further explains the advertisement. Because there are two locations on the advertisement that contain text, the format and placement of the texts contrast each other. The text is written in two different colors which helps differentiate them. Another way the texts are contrasting is their location on the advertisement. One piece of text is generally in the center, while the other piece of text is in the bottom right corner. Because there is text in the center of the advertisement, it tends to stick out rather than the text in the bottom corner. This draws the viewers attention immediately so it is the first thing they see. The designer of this advertisement did a very good job of planning an effective, yet simple advertisement.

The third, and final, aspect that makes this advertisement very affective is what it's overall message is. It is very clear that this advertisement is geared toward preventing distracted driving. Although this advertisement gives the location of the river Thames, which is a river that runs through southern England, distracted driving is a worldwide problem. There are many statistics that prove this problem, but a good example would be: "Five seconds is the average time your eyes are off the road while texting. When traveling at 55mph, that's enough time to cover the length of a football field blindfolded." (distraction.gov). That is just one of many statistics for distracted driving which might put this idea in perspective for everybody. It is a problem that has become extremely prominent over the past few years, with the evolvement of technology. This advertisement clearly and effectively brings this problem to it's viewers attention.

Designing advertisements for different print and electronic sources can be very difficult. It may not be clear, but many different aspects go into this process. The advertisement needs to catch the eyes of its ideal audience, and also leave an impacting effect on them. This advertisement has a very affective message with three aspects: where it was printed, design of the article, and what it's overall message is. Because of these three aspects, this advertisement is one more step in the right direction of ending this problem of distracted driving. Even if you do not know somebody who is a victim of this crime, this problem is getting worse and worse and it is the job of newspapers, magazines, and even billboards, to bring awareness to this issue.
