Skip to main content

Seniors: Print Advertising

(1) First, your goal is to evaluate the audience and purpose of a print advertisement. What is the target audience* for the ad? What magazine was it in? Who would the image(s) in the ad appeal to? Beyond selling a product, what else is being sold? What is the message (or implied message) of the ad?

* Target audience = the demographic that the company wants to reach, or that segment of the population (age, sex, race, class) that is most likely to buy the product or to use the service advertised.

(2) Second, your task is to describe the ad's contents. What does it look like? Your reader will not have the ad to reference, only your description, so describe the images, colors and layout. What do the images/colors suggest? If there is text, what does it say? Is there a slogan on the ad (usually next to the logo)? Analyze the use of diction and syntax. Be specific and use quotation marks when appropriate.

(3) Third, your goal is to analyze the effectiveness of the advertisement. Do you believe the ad appeals to its intended audience? Why? How does the ad appeal to ethos, pathos and logos, specifically? How well does the advertisement communicate its message*? What techniques does the ad use to communicate this message?

* Message = If you buy this product, then you will be _______ (usually something abstract).

Popular posts from this blog

Juniors ~ Restoration Period

For more on the Restoration Period, go to the homepage for the Norton Anthology of English Literature . Click on the picture below to go to Wikipedia's page on Hogarth's Marriage a-la-mode :
Read more

Seniors ~ Three (Small) Writing Assignments

As you work on your memory books this week and next, you should also be working on the end-of-year writing assignments.  I've given you a handout (if you were on class): A letter to your future self -- imagine yourself four years from now...where will you be, and what will you be doing?  Is it what you planned?  What do you hope to remember about NOW?  What's important?  Address your future self in a letter (standard form), and enclose it in a self-address envelope.  I won't read it, but I do need to know you've done it, so don't seal it. A reflective paragraph that will serve as the introduction to your memory book.  What is your overall impression of your high school years?  What do you want to remember most? Finally, write a poem about your senior class.  The form and tone of the poem is up to you: funny, serious or sad; rhyming couplets, ballad, or free verse.  However you write it, though, please take it seriously.  A copy of this poem should go in your memory ...
Read more

Homework

Seniors Your exam is on Thursday, and your final essay is on Friday. I'll talk more about the essay in class tomorrow. Also, the senior auction project lacks one more important detail - your memories! We will spend a bit of time tomorrow in class writing down some of your fondest memories of your senior year, and the rest of your time at RO.  Sophomores Read "Lines Composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey," and complete the questions at the end of the selection in your book. As always, please use complete sentences and cite frequently from the text.
Read more