Empire Magazine Front Cover Analysis Number 2

‘Empire’
The style of the font is in red, block and bold letters, obviously for a male target audience. The fire coming out of the letters-link back to the name of the they are promoting which is ‘Hellboy 2’ and there is a significant connection between the word ‘Hell’ and the fire coming out of the letters. In addition, the fire could represent the saying of ‘burning in all eternity’

‘Indy IV....There will be blood’
Again, this is a typical and traditional element of a magazine front cover, which provides its readers with additional information that normally is a ‘must read’. The fact that each topic has a big white bold heading and is constructed in a column, gives it a professional layout. White allows the information to stand out against the black background, giving visibility to typical topics such as women ‘Natalie Portman vs. Scarlett Johansson’ male reader.

‘Hellboy 2’
‘Hellboy 2’ is the new film that Empire is promoting. Again the white font is normally associated with the idea and gesture of purity and cleanliness, yet here it provides us as the target audience with something different, meaning something more evil and horrific. The layout of where ‘Hellboy is placed on the page, is a common convention of being at the bottom or if not there being at the top.

‘Sneak Preview Click Here’
Empire has cleverly placed this at the bottom of the page on the corner, where it looks like a fold to go to the next page, because it is another way to grab their readers’ attention to follow on and read further. The yellow bright circle again allows and adds emphasis. The fact that it says ‘Sneak Preview’ means early coverage or footage/information that can only be seen in this magazine, which makes Empire seem loyal to its readers making them feel special to get first insight. This adds to the promotion.

‘40 movies that will get you SEX!’
A typical line to address a male target audience is to talk about something that is of interest to them, which is sex. The words ’40 and ‘SEX’ are in bold, repeating a typical convention of highlighting words which will appeal to the target audience. ‘40’ is obviously associated with the number of tips; therefore men are going to want to read them, if there is a lot.

‘First Look’
‘First Look’ makes the reader feel like a VIP that they get the ‘first look at a sneak peak of the new film ‘Hellboy 2’. The position of the ‘First Look’ has its own allocated place on the page. The back font stands out against the gold/brown rectangular box. Again the exclamation mark always used for emphasis and direct communication to its readers.

The Main Image
Finally, the main image on the magazine front cover is of a character from the Hellboy 2 film. He has a very muscular and Hench physic, which immediately tells us that he is one of the main characters in the film, more than likely the antagonist. We get this impression, from the fact that he does not look human, but in fact like a monster. The ghastly facial expression and fists in a ‘punch’ action also add to the antagonist look. In addition, the beard and the two circles on his forehead could symbolize devil horns, along with the disheveled eyes giving it a more evil look. Furthermore, the character presented to us, adds to the selling point of the new film, which is the bad guy and the whole idea of the evil, crafty, frightening and fierce look that a killer would have, this would want to make more people want to view it.