Reference no: EM132337267

Essay Three: Rhetorical Advertisement Analysis

For this assignment you must select a 1 dimensional advertisement from an ONLINE source. 

You can easily do this by Googling "MAGAZINE ADVERTISEMENT" or looking at news sites for advertising, browsing company sites if you know what brand or product you want to review, or even just Googling for a specific product's advertisements. Then you will write a paper analyzing that advertisement. 

THE KEY HERE: IT HAS TO BE ONE ADVERTISEMENT, and IT HAS TO BE ONE DIMENSIONAL, meaning no animation, music, videos, multiple links, etc.. It should be an advertisement that could have been found in a paper magazine.

Think about the following questions. You will need to answer all of them in your essay.

• Who is the target audience of the advertisement you selected and how do you know this?

• What strategies are used to sell the item?

• What basic appeals are being made and how do you know that?

• How are layout tools like colors, lighting, balance, proportion, unity, and others defined in our articles being used?

• In your opinion, does the ad effectively sell the product?

• What assumptions does your ad make about people or our society?

• If there are figures in the ad, what are they like? What does the ad say about age, sex, ethnicity, education, gender, etc?

• How does the text contribute to the ad? How does the font of the text affect the ad?

Think about the above questions and create an argument about your ad that addresses all three angles of the rhetorical triangle: audience, subject, and author.  Make sure you explain the context surrounding each element.

These are just some of the questions/angles that you will need to address in your paper.  Go back to the articles and key terms that we have read this unit and use them in your analysis. THIS IS A REQUIREMENT; YOU WILL NEED TO PROVE YOU HAVE READ AND UNDERSTAND THE ARTICLES BY USING THEM IN YOUR PAPER.  If you do not use the articles, you will not meet the requirements of the paper.

I expect at least two direct quotes and two to four paraphrases-all cited.  Use the articles and websites that I have provided for you as your sources. This must be done with MLA formatting and proper documentation. 

In the Works Cited page, INCLUDE A WORKING LINK TO THE ADVERTISEMENT and an entry for its source.  I WILL NEED TO BE ABLE TO CLICK THE LINK AND VIEW THE ADVERTISEMENT YOU ARE ANALYZING.  This is a requirement, so make sure your link works before you submit your paper.  Do not try to paste the actual picture into the document-it will not load to Canvas that way.

Note: DO NOT use anything other than a two dimensional advertisement (no videos, multiple link advertisements, or any other advertisement).  You are looking for an online advertisement like you would find in a hard copy magazine. Also, be sure to choose ONLY ONE specific advertisement to analyze for this essay.

The following questions may also help you generate or expand upon ideas:

• Why am I being shown this or told that?

• How do the characters in the ad function as signs?

• What sorts of people don't appear in this ad? (The absent/present: What is not said or pictured can communicate just as much as what is present.)

• What cultural myths are invoked in this ad?

• What relationship do you see between those myths and the target audience for the publication?

• How are the designers making use of color, lighting, copy, and positioning of the models?

• Has the public reacted in any way to this ad?

• What story does this ad tell about how happiness is achieved? About what culture is or should be like?

• How is this ad playing off of its audience's desires and/or fears?

I always have several people ask me about the "required length" of the paper due.  I don't think that you need to focus on a length at this level of English; therefore, I did not include one.  I did, however, include the directions, my advice, and several thought stimulating questions with the assignment.  The required length should be as long as it takes you to accomplish the following objectives:

1. Introduce and describe the advertisement--the magazine/website's title and issue date (if there is one) and the name of the company who produced the advertisement should be mentioned. You also need to include a thesis statement, which would give an overall summary of the main points you will be exploring in your paper.

2. Analyze the advertisement.  This is where you prove to me that you have read and understand the articles.  I expect you to "take the bull by the horns" by utilizing the new vocabulary you have come across.  I expect to see terms that were introduced and explained in the articles used in your own analysis.  You should address the rhetorical triangle as well, meaning identify the advertisement's subject, audience, and author and the contexts acting upon all three of those items.  Yes, do provide a description of the advertisement, but go beyond that by asking WHY the company chose to use the lighting, layout, fonts, colors, and spacing that it did.  Every detail of an advertisement is done on purpose.  There are no accidents. The difference between the A paper and the D paper here is the author's ability to explain or hypothesize WHY something might have been shown the way it is and WHAT THAT MEANS to the consumers and societies it is geared towards.

3. As with any paper, conclude with an overall restatement of your thesis and some thought-provoking questions, observations, or comments that leave the reader thinking of your points after he or she has set the paper down. 

I am not interested in the length.  I have found that giving "required lengths" makes students add filler when they have run out of good things to say or it makes a student quit prematurely when the length is reached but the paper isn't complete.  Every writer is different, and every writer will take a unique amount of space to communicate his or her message.  If this freaks you out; don't let it.  Breathe, compose a well-developed paper, and check it for grammatical errors.

*This paper DOES require sources.  You can ONLY use the articles, websites, and sources that I have posted labeled READINGS. Do not pull in outside sources for this analysis other than the advertisement/image you have chosen.