Anaylizing Advertisments
Essay Four: Analyzing Advertisements
Some thoughts regarding Advertisements:
- Advertisements are a crucial element of contemporary society: surrounding us in our daily lives, influencing our behavior and attitudes, and holding up a sometimes uncannily accurate, sometimes intriguingly distorted mirror of our culture.
- Advertisements encode many of our most crucial values and beliefs.
- Even the simplest and most seemingly direct advertisements still carry subtly powerful messages–about appropriate modes of behavior, standards of beauty and success, gender roles, and a variety of other markers for normalcy and status.
- Advertisements have quite an influence–perhaps all the more so because we think they’re so bland and harmless.
Your Analysis/Thesis: After reading “Chapter 4: Brought To You B(u)y: The Signs of Advertising,” (241-249) and “Reading Visual Images Actively” (28-31), you will analyze any advertisement of your choice. Your analysis will intensely and astutely examine an advertisement of your choice by expressing the advertisement’s “true” purpose or it’s ulterior motive.
- For instance, you found a print advertisement in People Magazine for the newest Apple iPad and chose to analyze it for this essay. Your Thesis and the essay’s overall purpose isn’t to expose that the new iPad is good and will be available in four fashion colors…NO!!!
- Your Thesis and the essay’s overall purpose is to expose that the newest Apple iPad is promoting elitism amongst society and that the new generation of youth (ages 12-18) are being influenced in a negative way where they will only want and desire items that are expensive and fashionable in order to show off; thus, the iPad’s purpose of technology making life easier is lost on this new generation of consumers who are concerned only with artifice and less with substance and purpose.
Of course, this is one way of analyzing and advertisement. The different methods of analyzing an advertisement can encompass but are not limited to:
- Analyzing an advertisement’s influence on or reflection of our Western society’s divisive elitism
- Analyzing ad advertisement’s influence on or reflection of sexism/sexist beliefs
- Analyzing an advertisement’s influence on or reflection of racist beliefs
- Analyzing an advertisement’s influence on or reflection of homophobia
Whichever way you choose to analyze an advertisement, make sure you are not merely summarizing the advertisement’s purpose. You are re-examining the advertisement and seeking the hidden agenda behind the advertisement. What else is it selling? Or, what is it truly selling?
As I read your essay, I look to be enlightened by your unique view of “seeing” an advertisement in a new and different way. What is this advertisement trying to say or what is it insinuating?
How do you arrive at your Thesis? Scrutinize the image(s) carefully:
- Pay attention to specific people or objects in the ad.
- Do they have cultural significance?
- Are there dominant colors?
- Do these colors have cultural significance?
When analyzing images, consider the sections “Developing Strong Arguments about Popular Culture” (p. 24-28) and “Reading Visual Images Actively” (p. 28-31) from the preface of our textbook to help you analyze an image which will help you cultivate your Thesis and shape your analysis throughout the essay.
How to submit your essay:
1) Submit your essays into this dropbox.
2a) In a separate dropbox, submit the advertisement you are analyzing (whether it’s a picture or a video). This other dropbox will be able to accept picture or video files of your advertisement.
2b) Also, since you will be constantly referring to the advertisement throughout your essay, you will need to cite the advertisement in the Works Cited page of your essay. The MLA guide found on the Purdue link (in Modules) instructs you on how to cite an advertisement in the Works Cited page.
Suggestions on describing your advertisement: It is recommended that after the Introduction paragraph you should devote the following paragraph to describing the advertisement in detail. I want to be able to “picture” the advertisement in my mind’s eye as I read through your essay and comprehend your analysis of the advertisement. Even though you will supply a copy of the advertisement in a separate dropbox submission, in an analysis like this it is always customary to describe the advertisement in detail before you analyze it.
The following body paragraphs of the essay will then analyze the advertisement and explore the ad’s deeper meaning.
Essay Length: 5 pages (not counting the Works Cited page).
Sources: You must find sources that will corroborate your analysis. Consider using the other essays from Ch. 4 of our textbook.
One source you will find very helpful is a pdf document on our Modules page. This document will help you analyze any visual ad (print or moving picture ad) and pick it apart to analyze every element in the ad that makes it effective:
- (this is the hyperlink to the pdf. found on Modules under Documents)
Due Date: Sunday, August 15th @ 11:50 p.m.
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Sample Outline for inspiration…
I) Introduction
- Thesis and Essay Map: The Skyy Vodka ad named “Starlet” is not just an ad for vodka itself. By using Hollywood glamour, moderate sex appeal, and general symbols of elitism in the set design, Skyy Vodka sells a fantasy that psychologically deludes its consumers to believe that buying its vodka will make them feel wealthy and classy.
II) Body Paragraphs
A) First, the use of classic Hollywood symbols throughout the advertisement help create the illusion of wealth and class the consumer hopes to achieve in his or her own life.
i) First, the old fashioned movie camera used in the advertisement hearkens to old Hollywood of the 1940s where wealth was constantly displayed on and off the screen. [Describe the meaning of the example and analyze it to explain it’s significance and how it supports the overall Thesis. Try to find a source to back up and validate your analysis of this example.]
ii) Next, the costumes of the man and the woman in the ad make the consumer think of old Hollywood movies that portrayed stories of wealthy men and women. [Describe the meaning of the example and analyze it to explain it’s significance and how it supports the overall Thesis. Try to find a source to back up and validate your analysis of this example.]
iii) Last, the name of the advertisement, “Starlet” makes the consumer think of old Hollywood stars like Elizabeth Taylor who portrayed wealthy and glamorous women in movies. [Describe the meaning of the example and analyze it to explain it’s significance and how it supports the overall Thesis. Try to find a source to back up and validate your analysis of this example.]
B) Second, the moderate use of sex appeal connotes wealth and class that attracts the consumer and makes them believe they will likewise achieve such qualities with Skyy Vodka.
i) First, even though the dress is revealing, the fact that it is white connotes an element of class and respectability for the model. [Describe the meaning of the example and analyze it to explain it’s significance and how it supports the overall Thesis. Try to find a source to back up and validate your analysis of this example.]
ii) Next, the makeup and hair style of the model are sexy yet tasteful–not too overdone. Thus, she doesn’t look like a prostitute, but a woman of wealth and status. [Describe the meaning of the example and analyze it to explain it’s significance and how it supports the overall Thesis. Try to find a source to back up and validate your analysis of this example.]
iii) Last, the jewelry and shoes of the model are likewise accessories only a wealthy woman would wear. [Describe the meaning of the example and analyze it to explain it’s significance and how it supports the overall Thesis. Try to find a source to back up and validate your analysis of this example.]
C) Finally, the overall set design has elements of wealth that attract the consumer and make them associate such positive qualities with Skyy Vodka.
i) First, the mahogany colored floors and the detailed wallpaper are a sign of wealth. [Describe the meaning of the example and analyze it to explain it’s significance and how it supports the overall Thesis. Try to find a source to back up and validate your analysis of this example.]
ii) Next, the bearskin rug is another sign of wealth. [Describe the meaning of the example and analyze it to explain it’s significance and how it supports the overall Thesis. Try to find a source to back up and validate your analysis of this example.]
iii) Last, the use of the color royal blue throughout the advertisement adds a subtle symbol of wealth throughout the scene of the ad. [Describe the meaning of the example and analyze it to explain it’s significance and how it supports the overall Thesis. Try to find a source to back up and validate your analysis of this example.]
III) Conclusion
As you can see, Skyy Vodka tries to fool the consumer with multiple signs and symbols into buying its product.
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