Analyze an Ad Assignment

Analyze an Ad Assignment – Individually or with a partner

Your task is to analyze a magazine ad by answering the following questions and writing a brief statement that expresses the essence of your findings. You must determine exactly what an ad says and explain how the ad says it.

Choose an ad that is ripe for analysis, one with different levels of meaning and message.

How to Analyze an Advertisement – Finding Ads’ Hidden Messages

There’s more to advertising’s message than meets the casual eye. An effective ad, like other forms of communication, works best when it strikes a chord in the needs and desires of the receiving consumer — a connection that can be both intuitive and highly calculated.
The following questions can help foster an awareness of this process. Use them for class or group discussions or your own individual analysis of ads or commercials. You may be surprised by the messages and meanings you uncover.

Answer these in point form:
1. What is the general ambience of the advertisement? What mood does it create? How does it do this?
2. What is the design of the advertisement? How are the basic components or elements arranged?
3. What is the relationship between pictorial elements and written material and what does this tell us?
4. What is the use of space in the advertisement? Is there a lot of ‘white space” or is it full of graphic and written elements?
5. What signs and symbols do we find? What role do they play in the ad’s impact?
6. If there are figures (men, women, children, animals) what are they like? What can be said about their facial expressions, poses, hairstyle, age, sex, hair color, ethnicity, education, occupation, relationships (of one to the other)?
7. What does the background tell us? Where is the advertisement taking place and what significance does this background have?
8. What action is taking place in the advertisement and what significance does it have? (This might be described as the ad’s “plot.”)
9. What theme or themes do we find in the advertisement? What is it about? (The plot of an advertisement may involve a man and a woman drinking but the theme might say something about jealousy, faithlessness, ambition, passion, etc.)
10. What about the language used? Does it essentially provide information or does it try to generate some kind of emotional response? Or both? What techniques are used by the copywriter: humor, alliteration, definitions” of life, comparisons, sexual innuendo, and so on?
11. What is the item being advertised and what role does it play in our culture and society?
12. What sociological, political, economic or cultural attitudes are indirectly reflected in the advertisement? An advertisement may be about a pair of blue jeans but it might, indirectly, reflect such matters as sexism, alienation, stereotyped thinking, conformism, generational conflict, loneliness, elitism, and so on.

Once you have answered the questions above, you must write a statement (paragraph of 8-12 sentences) that summarizes your findings – what is the ad saying and how does it deliver the message?

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