Critical analysis of an existing music advertisement

Stone Sour - Audio Secrecy
This is an advertisement for Stone Sour's third album, released in 2010. The band is known for having two members of Slipknot (vocalist Corey Taylor and guitarist Jim Root) in the band. Although Stone Sour had formed before Slipknot, they did not initially release an album, and the band was put on hiatus when Corey joined Slipknot in 1997. Jim Root also joined in 1999 after their original guitarist, Josh Brainard, left the band over disagreements with other members.
Stone Sour started releasing albums when Slipknot finished touring for their second album, Iowa, in 2002. They began releasing albums once every four years, with Slipknot recording and touring in between those gaps.

The advertisement is based on the album's front cover. Although it dissolves into black near the bottom where the text is positioned. Including the album cover makes it immediately identifiable to fans as an advertisement centred around this particular band. The album title is shown again in a bigger font, which is beneficial because its appearance on the cover itself is small and somewhat hard to read. It is written in a similar font to much of the text on the artwork (the back cover as well as the front). The text below details the release date and 2 of the songs it features that fans were given the oppurtunity to hear prior to the album's release. This is an important selling point as it can encourage fans to buy the album as not many music buyers would be willing to buy the album if they had not heard any songs from it prior. The release formats are also displayed, which is also important as digital downloading is becoming a more popular method of buying music, as it is easier and less time consuming than going out and buying a CD or ordering a CD online and having to wait a few days to recieve it. However, in a way, it also promotes purchasing it on CD with mention of its "Special CD/DVD" edition. Special editions of albums usually feature a handful of bonus tracks, and a DVD featuring a live performance or the band in the studio recording the songs.

I personally think this advertisement is simple and effective. There is no image of the band as they are already established, therefore only the album cover as well as a clear showing of the album title was necessary. The colour scheme of the text is also good as it keeps with the colour scheme of the album cover. I also like the yellow text as it puts emphasis on the songs - a reason to buy the album.