Advertisement Essay

Advertisement Essay
Length:​Two pages min.
Format:​Essay
Choose a recent (released within the last year or so) print advertisement. Please do not use any ads that have the analysis already done for you, such as the “Moms Demand Action” ads, since your analysis of the ad is a major requirement of this assignment. When describing the print advertisement, you will be painting a picture with words. Remember to stay in the present tense; for example, the man holds the whisky bottle. Also, use place signals: above, across, adjacent to, below, beneath, beside, between, beyond, farther, here, nearer, on the opposite side, opposite to, over, there, under.
After describing the advertisement using specific and detailed language, you must address the explicit (clearly and precisely expressed) and implicit meaning(s) (not directly stated or expressed).
You will want to address most of the following questions while transitioning smoothly between ideas and paragraphs:
What exactly is being advertised?
What appears to be the intended audience?
What suggests this?
Where is it set in space and time?
Who are the participants?
What are they doing?
What key objects are featured?
What part is played by words (choice of words, typography?)
What part is played by the use of light and dark?
Which features are foregrounded and which are backgrounded?
What significance might all of these features have for the intended viewers?
What key inferences must the viewer make to make sense of the ad?
With what is the product associated?
What does the product seem to symbolize?
What does the ad seem to suggest about gender roles, class/status, age, ethnicity or self-identify?
What cultural assumptions and values seem to be involved?
What use is made of humor and to what effect?
What do you regard as the most likely preferred interpretation offered in the ad?
What scope does there seem to be for alternative interpretations?