Annotated ad

Posted: September 25th, 2015

Advertisement Analysis
Constructing an effective argument of your own in which you attempt to persuade an audience about a specific claim. Analyze how others make claims for a specific audience. We are bombarded with messages and commercials everyday. By looking closely at these messages, we gain a deeper understanding of assumptions and perceptions. We also can become more critical thinkers both in our academic and every day life.

Objectively analyze the advertisement to determine how it works.
Come to an understanding of who the audience is and how they’re being persuaded.
Analyze for visual rhetoric, rhetorical appeals, and weak claims (use both logical fallacy information in JAC and Schrank’s “The Language of Advertising Claims.” Both will be assigned later).
Create a clear argument about the success of the advertisement (this will be your thesis).

determine if the advertisement’s perception of the audience is accurate or not. In this paper, you can be the target audience. If this is the case, you can talk about how and why they tried to appeal to you and people like you. You will need to talk in both generalities (your age, gender, ethnicity, class, etc) and specifics.

Consider the following questions in helping you to shape your response:

What is the ad’s message? Is there an underlying message, too? (What is the subtextual message? How does it connect to larger social/cultural issues?)
Who is the target audience? Again, what evidence can you find? Is the advertisement’s perception of the audience is accurate?
What are the visual appeals that the ad uses?
What rhetorical tactics or appeals (logos, ethos, pathos) are used by the creators of the ads?
How (and how well) do these appeals work to accomplish their desired effects?
How are the features of the target audience affected by the appeals? (“This tactic works well because it taps into the young male audience’s feeling of insecurity and how much they want to imitate this celebrity.”)
Why do you believe this advertisement effectively or ineffectively connects to the audience? Your answer to this question will become your thesis statement.