In the Beretta Forbes Life advertisement, the advertiser is conveying to potential customers in the United States that Beretta now has a gallery in New York. On first glance at the advertisement, readers see a few people in the bottom half of the ad dressed in traditional hunting clothes in a grassy field, bird hunting, and in the top half, see the Empire State Building and the words “The world of Beretta in the heart of New York,” with the words New York in red. The purpose of this ad is to show that Beretta products are now more easily accessible to their customers because they have a store in New York. I would argue that there are two parts of the visual that together create eye-catching contrast, and that this contrast serves the greater purpose of the advertisement. At first glance, the reader may notice the green hunting field in the bottom half of the advertisement. This half of the ad serves to show “the world of Beretta”. By showing this place, the ad is trying to entice its audience, not just to buy its clothes and guns, but to join this world. It is a rich world; the middle class does not usually hunt in ties and pub caps. It also shows …show more content…
What is the Empire State Building doing in the middle of a field? The advertiser uses the Empire State Building to make contrast between this world that Beretta creates and serves with the modernity and “heart of New York” in order to communicate to its audience that Beretta has a new store in New York. “The heart of New York” implies the busyness and insanity of New York City: taxi cabs flying past, everyone moving in droves to where they have to be, so many colors, sounds, smells. All of the loudness and busyness is almost the total antithesis of the calm scene painted in the bottom half of the ad. This contrast catches the eye and serves the purpose of the ad: not just to sell a product or a world, but to communicate to its