Analyzing Ads
Whenever we study and analyze magazine ads, it may be useful to ask ourselves some of the following questions.
The Mood
1. What is the atmosphere or ambience of the ad? What mood does it create, what feelings does it stimulate and how does it create this mood?
The Design
2. How would you describe the overall design of the ad? How are the various components of the ad arranged? Where are we asked to gaze? How are we "directed" by the design of the ad?
3. What is the relationship between pictures (images/signs) and written material (text/language)? What about the language used in the ad - does it provide information, create some form of emotional response, present its message authoritatively, humorously etc.?
4. What does the background of the ad tell us? What and where is the action in the ad? What is the relationship between the background and the action of the ad? What about the use of space ("white [blank] space" in particular)?
The Context and Content
5. What is the object or item that is being advertised and what significance and role does it play in American culture and society?
6. How does the ad appeal to our emotions and our sense of justice or right or wrong? How does the ad establish its credibility?
7. If there are women, men, children, and/or animals in the ad what are they like? What do they represent socially or culturally? What can be said about their facial expressions, poses, styles, education, occupation, or ethnicity?
8. What else besides the item or product is being sold in the ad? Does the ad seem to propose a particular standard that a reader might apply to beauty, body type, gender roles, parenting, work, or leisure? How are these standards "sold" along with the product?
Language and Typefaces
9. How is language used in the ad? Does the ad use metaphor? Metonymy? Repetition? Alliteration? Comparison & contrast? Sexual innuendo? Other rhetorical strategies (use your list!!!)
10. What typefaces are used and what messages do these typefaces convey?
The Themes
11. What theme or themes do we find in the ad? What is the ad about? (The plot of an ad may be about a man driving a sports car down a winding mountain road but the theme of the ad could be the desire for power, control, and virility).
12. What social, political, or economic attitudes and values are directly or indirectly reflected in the ad? (alienation, sexism, conformity, anxiety, stereotyped thinking, generational conflict, obsession, elitism, loneliness, and so on).
A.P. Analytical Essay:
Advertisement
Analytical essay must:
Identify what publication the advertisement is from.
Identify what persuasive strategies are being used. (What claims are being made? What claims are suggested or implied? What are the underlying assumptions? How much truth is conveyed by the advertisement?)
subject
occasion
audience
purpose
speaker
tone
Examine which appeals are being used and how they are being used?
Rate the advertisement’s overall effectiveness (1-10, 10 being the highest). Explain why you gave it this particular rating.
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