Advertising is an especially lucrative business. The cost of a thirty-second Super Bowl ad was $3 million in 2009, and advertisers are often willing to shell out the big bucks to pay someone (more likely a team of someones) to craft an ad that will appeal to a certain desired consumer base, send messages, and make connections between objects in order to sell. Such rhetoric often goes unstated, leaving the consumer to take it apart and figure out what’s going on.
As Dr. Laura Carroll argues, rhetoric is happening all around us; in our daily lives, “we meet different people, encounter unfamiliar situations, and see media that asks us to do, think, buy, and act in all sorts of ways” (“Backpacks vs. Briefcases” 46). Because we are surrounded by persuasive efforts, part of being a responsible consumer and citizen is to learn how to “read” the signs around us to come to a judgment about what we should do, think, buy, or how we should act. This act is called analysis – breaking down a text into its component parts to see how it works. (A text, by the way, does not have to be written; anything that can be “read” or interpreted is a text, including art, photojournalism, films, and so on.) Careful and reasoned analysis helps to inform us and our judgments.
Assignment
For this essay, you will choose an advertisement to analyze. This advertisement can be selling a product, endorsing a charity, a public service announcement, or some other appeal. It can be printed, electronic, or televised, and it can be from any time period – as long as it has some visual component. Your goal is to break the advertisement down into its parts and examine its rhetorical situation. Explain what the ad means in detail and analyze the rhetorical situation. What is the purpose? Who is the audience? How does the stance impact the audience, or does it? How effective is the visual image?
This essay should be at least 750 words and no longer than 1000 words. You only need one source for this essay, which is the source where you located the image (library database). You may have more sources as needed.
