Textual Analysis cover page - rolling stone

Textual Analysis - Rolling Stone

The magazine uses Robert Downey Jr as the model of the front cover. His facial expression is very blank and almost quite distant, he isn’t really showing any emotion, this ties in with the main cover line ‘To Hell and Back With Robert Downey Jr’ because the use of the word ‘hell’ and also his facial expression shows he is not necessarily happy. There for the article in the magazine will most probably look at the worse times of his life which customers would probably be more interested in than all the high points of his life, and consequently sell more magazines.

Also he is wearing just an orange hoody with the hood up. This is not an expected choice of attire for a famous movie star, so there for I think it represents a more personal side to him and also could link back to the main cover line and show the lower times of his life, when he wasn’t so successful and maybe wore hoodies as appose to expensive suits.

Also he is not clean-shaven, which could also imply the harder, worse off times in his life, as he is not looking his best.

The colour scheme is very limited, with all the typography in the black, white or grey and the image of Robert Downey Jr in colour with an orange hoody that stands out a lot. I think the colour pallet is limited because they want the celebrity image to stand out, as he is popular and will appeal to a lot of people, there for increasing sales. I also think there is limited colour because I think the target market is middle aged so they wouldn’t be interested in a lot bright colours.

The cover lines lack a lot of colour and the font is quite basic and dull, there for it wouldn’t appeal to a younger audience, on the other hand I think it appeals to a middle aged audience really well as that is there target market. I think the masthead is also very boring in colour although the grey contrasts the white background and the orange from image.   

One of the cover lines is about politics; I think this definitely highlights the fact that the target audience is quite old as generally a young audience would not be interested in politics.