Analysis of an Ad

“Imagine an alien race has been collecting intelligence about Americans entirely through a single medium: [print advertisements]. Based on our [advertisements], what would this alien species know about us? Given the prevalence of ads for pharmaceuticals, they’d have to think we were awfully frail. We must also hold something called ‘beer’ in high esteem. What if we take a closer look at a single [advertisement] and ask what it says about us as a culture? Sure, [advertisements] are used to sell stuff, but they sell us stuff by reflecting aspects of our culture to us. In every [advertisement], there is the surface text: ‘Buy this because of these reasons.’ There is also subtext. This is what’s underneath the text, the underlying cultural connections that help sell the product” (Warner 83).

In New and Improved: Six Decades of Advertising,” Behrens and Rosen echo Warner’s sentiments about the subtext of advertisements. They explain “Advertisements are more than just appeals to buy; they are windows into our psyche and our culture. They reveal our values, our (not-so-hidden) desires, our yearnings for a different lifestyle” (537).

Parsing out the surface text and the subtext of advertisements (or, for that matter, any texts we encounter) is an important skill. It involves rhetorical analysis. As Laura Bolin Carroll explains, “Each day we meet different people, encounter unfamiliar situations, and see media that asks us to do, think, buy, and act in all sorts of ways. In fact, our saturation in media and its images is one of the reasons why learning to do rhetorical analysis is so important. The more we know about how to analyze situations and draw informed conclusions, the better we can become about making savvy judgments about the people, situations, and media we encounter” (46). Carroll goes on to say “Media is constantly asking you to buy something, act in some way, believe something to be true, or interact with others in a specific manner. Understanding rhetorical messages is essential to help us to become informed consumers, but it also helps evaluate the ethics of messages, how they affect us personally, and how they affect society” (46).

This assignment asks you to examine an advertisement and complete a rhetorical analysis based on your observation of and reaction to the ad, by working through the tools of rhetorical analysis described by Laura Bolin Carroll and John Warner. You will also apply the theoretical work of Jib Fowles as an analytical frame. You’ll be taking the text apart in order to understand its purpose as the ways textual and visual elements are used to achieve that purpose. Keep in mind, the purpose of any ad is to get us to buy a product or a service. So how does the particular ad you’re examining do that? What about our culture, or about our individual wants, needs, desires, or beliefs is targeted in this ad?

YOUR ASSIGNMENT

Your task in this writing experience is to engage in a process of observation, analysis, and synthesis in an effort to uncover what a single advertisement says about American culture. You will select a single advertisement from a set of advertisements provided for you on Canvas, and work through a rhetorical analysis of that ad. An analytical tool is a principle, definition, or theory that is used as the basis for analysis. For this assignment, your analytical tool Jib Fowles’s theory on appeals in advertising, laid out in his theoretical article “Advertising’s Fifteen Basic Appeals.”

AUDIENCE

Your audience is a group of people who want to become more informed consumers. They want to understand how advertisers gain our attention and convince us to buy things by targeting our wants, needs, desires, or beliefs.

PROCESS

1. Choose an advertisement from the options linked on Canvas. Indicate your choice in the appropriate assignment link on Canvas.

2. Use John Warner’s ROAS (react, observe, analyze, synthesize) method to carefully examine the advertisement. When you get to the “analyze” step, use the methods explained by Laura Bolin Carroll to more closely analyze the rhetoric. Briefly:

a. React: Look at the ad. How do you respond to it, initially? Is it persuasive? Do you have an emotional response to the surface text about what they’re trying to sell you? What are you reacting to?

b. Observe: Look more closely and make specific observations. Is there a narrative element? What’s the story being told? What images are shown? What do they look like? Who is in the ad? What do the people in the ad look like? How would you describe them?

c. Analyze: Put your observations together in order to answer some questions. Who is the ad targeting? Why? How do you know? What is important or valuable in the world of the ad? What does it say about our culture? What does it say about what people want, need, desire, or believe?

d. Synthesize. Put your observations and analysis together to develop a thesis that makes an argument about the subtext of the ad and what it suggests about our culture.

3. Apply Jib Fowles’s theory to your ad. Which of Fowles’s fifteen appeals is shown in the ad? How?

4. Write your draft. Explain not only the obvious message of the text (buy this product for these reasons), but also the subtext (what does the ad say about our culture? About what we want or need?) Make an argument about the subtext of the ad and what it says about our culture. The subtext of the ad should form the basis of your thesis. As you draft, include a description of the ad that increases the audience’s familiarity with the text. After that, you’ll need to explain the features of the ad (text, visual, color, etc.) that combine to create the message/meaning of the text. How does the text share its message?

5. Review and revise. Review your draft. What’s your message about the ad and what it says about our culture and/or about what people want, need, desire, or believe? Do you have sufficient evidence to support your argument? Are you telling the audience something about the ad that is not immediately apparent? Revise accordingly.

6. Edit and polish. Be sure to include a works cited page that lists your ad and any other sources you may have cited. At a minimum, you’ll need cite your ad on your works cited page. If you pulled in anything from Carroll or Behrens and Rosen you’ll need to cite that, as well.

REQUIREMENTS: KEY FEATURES OF ANALYSIS

Your analysis should include each of the following key features:

· Provide a context for your analysis. We will discuss specific strategies for beginning your introduction, but you might begin by discussing advertising in general or by providing an example or anecdote from your own experience. You will also want to introduce and summarize Fowles’s “Advertising’s Fifteen Basic Appeals.” Build your introduction toward your thesis statement, which should be included at the end of your introductory section. A thesis that offers a clear interpretation or judgment. Remember that a thesis statement must make an assertion about a topic. Your thesis should include a connection with Fowles’s appeal and assert how the ad is convincing to its audience.

Include a detailed description of the ad. Provide enough detail that a reader who has not seen the ad will be able to develop a mental picture of it. (In addition to your written description, you may also insert an image of your ad into your essay as Hannah Berry did. This is optional, you’re not required to do this, but it might be helpful to your readers.)

· Identification of a target audience for the ad

· Reasonable support for your thesis.

· A conclusion that addresses the “so what.”

· Your essay must be a minimum of 850 words, not including the works cited listing (though you do need a works cited listing).