Media Analysis - 'The Secret Seller'

Not only was my first media analysis lecture inspiring, it was also eye-opening as I began to see magazines in a diffrerent light. No longer was my October issue of Vogue a fashion magazine, it was now a consumer magazine with advertisements, articles and a layout to suit the masses. When my 'free' issue of ASOS magazine came through my letterbox, usually priced at £1 I noticed on the cover, I was no longer fooled by its glossy exterior, celebrity cover-star and high-end photo shoots. For the first time, I recognised its purpose. A contract magazine in disguise of a regular high-street glossy, it featured articles such as 'Matthew Williamson – 10 years in fashion', 'Weather the change' – an article on ways to transition from summer into winter, and 'Fashion Starts Over' – reporting the trends form London Fashion Week. Any regular reader would be fooled, but with my new-found knowledge I started to see what could only be described as the 'secret seller'. With the articles and fashion reports out of the way in the first few pages, ASOS shows you where to buy the latest trends, mentioning an assortment of labels and designer brands, but it occurred to me that every item, tagged with a price and reference number, was in-fact being sold by ASOS. The 'get the look' pages and full-page fashion spreads filled with models wearing ASOS clothing, could possibly be the best form of promotion around, and although no longer naïve to their tactics, I certainly will be scouring the ASOS website in search of that hot pink dress, leather jacket and chunky knit cardigan that are 'must-haves' this winter.