How to Make a Toothpaste Advertisement

Advertisements are designed to make a product look appealing and to make it more sellable to a mass audience. Toothpaste ads are designed to show how effectively the toothpaste cleans teeth. Creating your own toothpaste ad should feature lots of happy people smiling to show their teeth, as well as shots of the toothpaste product itself. Before and after shots of teeth can be very effective. You will also need an understanding of how to operate digital cameras and design software like Photoshop.

Design your toothpaste ad with paper and pencil before you begin designing it on the computer. Think of what sets your toothpaste apart from others to see if a concept or theme presents itself for the ad. Try to incorporate a smile and some kind of effective catch phrase or gimmick. For example, you may say “My Toothpaste Brings a Smile You Can’t Outshine.” Use words referring to whiteness and brightness and good taste, and if possible, tie it into the name of your toothpaste product. Place this catch phrase prominently in your design.

Study toothpaste advertisements in magazines and online. Use these as models for your advertisement but create your own unique design. You can also use these other advertisements to make sure your idea, catch phrase or design hasn’t been used already. Modify your design if necessary.

Use your digital camera to take any pictures you need for your advertisement. These pictures should include pictures of the toothpaste, your smiling model and any other pictures you may want to integrate into your advertisement such as mint leaves to suggest fresh breath or ice to suggest a cool, wintery sensation.

Hook your camera up to your computer through a USB port. Click Start and Computer. Click on the camera icon in your Computer folder and locate the photos you've just taken. Right click on the desktop and click “Create new folder.” Name the folder. Click on your photos and drag them into this folder to copy them over.

Open your design software and begin replicating your drawn design. Design software varies, but you should create a new project at the size your ad will be, at 300 dpi (or larger if the ad's dimensions may eventually increase), and open up any picture files you will need to use. Open these photos individually and copy them. Paste them into your project window and resize them to fit. Click on the tool to add new text (often a T icon) option and create the text around your pictures. Save different elements such as the model photo, the product photo, and the text, on separate layers in order to better manipulate each one. Make any changes necessary in the design as you go. Save the file in separated layers, then flatten the image and save it again. The layered version will be your working file -- something you can come back to and make easy changes on. The flattened version is your current ad.

Print out your advertisement and show it to people. Get their honest opinion about the design and effectiveness of it. Use this information to make any changes you find necessary to your working file in the design software. Save it as a new file name -- in case you wish to go back to the original version or need to reference something -- and flatten it again to save the updated version.