What Are They Telling Me?
In this unit we will be exploring the topics of forum and rhetorical appeal. You will write a paper in which you deconstruct one or a series of print and/or television ads. The purpose, audience, and forum for this paper are up to you; I want you to think critically about how advertisers appeal to potential consumers and what tactics they employ in so doing. It might, however, be a good idea to pick a product/ad for which you are the intended audience so you can use your own personal experience/self-knowledge in order to determine the validity/effectiveness of the ad or the lack thereof.
Please consider all of the following:
- What is the product, and who is the intended consumer. Consider age, culture, and financial status.
- What is said both explicitly and subliminally in the ad? What images are displayed, and to what purpose? Do the images and the text even have anything to do with the product itself?
- What assumptions do the advertisers make about their audience? Are these assumptions correct/valid? (For example, if you are a member of the intended audience for a particular ad, do you feel that the advertisers did a good job of "reaching you" or "talking to you on your level"?
- Does the ad appeal to your emotions (fear, pleasure, pride) or to logic and reason?
- What is the context of the ad? What magazine does it appear in, who is that magazine market towards? What sorts of articles appear in it? What other ads are in it? If you're analyzing a television commercial, you should take into consideration the network, the shows during which the commercial is aired.