Analyzing an Advertisement
Purpose
In this post, you will apply the lessons you have learned about visual rhetoric, practice close-reading skills, and hone your analytical writing skills. Being able to analyze a print advertisement and identify the dominant means of persuasion will help you develop the skills you will need to analyze the literature in the upcoming units. Furthermore, strengthening your critical reading and thinking skills will help you in your other college courses and your career.
Task
- Use the web to find a print advertisement you would like to analyze. You may conduct a Google image search for a print ad for a product that you are interested in, or you can browse some collections of ads, such as Duke University’s Digital Collections, or Top Design Mag’s Awesome Collection of Print Ads.
- Copy the advertisement you choose and paste it into the posting box. If you have trouble pasting the image, try attaching it to your post or using the “Insert Image” button under the advanced HTML tools.
- After pasting it, use the same box and answer at least 3 of the following questions (you may answer in bulleted formatting instead of paragraphs):
- Who do you think is the intended audience and why?
- What is the means of persuasion—pathos, ethos, logos, and why do you think so?
- Is the persuasion implicit or explicit, and why do you think so?
- Which of Jib Fowles’ list of needs/desires is being promoted? How so?
- If a story is being told, what is it?
- Are there cultural or historic connotations being used (like the DKNY apple)?
- How does the composition or placement of people or items help the message get across? Where is the viewer’s eye being directed?
- What does the body language of the models’ positioning suggest?
- How is the lighting, the shadowing, and the color working to create meaning?
- Is there wordplay or innuendo being used? How so?
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