Analyzing a Visual Text
Although advertising cannot create desire, it can channel it. And what is drawn down that channel, what travels with the commercial, is our culture. Adcult [advertising culture] has its greatest power in determining what travels with the commercial. For what is carried in and with advertising is what we know, what we share, what we believe in. It is who we are. It is us.
James Twitchell, Adcult USA
Pick one print advertisement (an ad specifically designed for a print source-magazine, newspaper, etc.). It need not have a specific number of words, though it must combine some printed text with a compelling visual image. Attach your ad to your analysis.
Your analysis will likely be about 1000 words.
Consider the ad as a mode of persuasion and analyze the techniques that have been used to make it a persuasive piece of discourse. The questions below should guide your analysis:
- Why does this ad look the way it does? This will require description and explanation of the ad's design: visual images, colors, etc.; word choices; layout and arrangement, etc.
- How does it intend to persuade the viewer?
- What claim does it make and how does it support that claim? Furthermore, consider the ad as a sign or symbol of American culture. A sign such as the ad you select-is a cultural artifact that if "read" or analyzed closely enough, reveals important information about the culture that produces and consumes it, for much of its persuasive power is derived by appealing to cultural values.
- What's this ad really seem to be saying?
- What story does it tell about the American culture?
- What cultural values does it suggest?
Your paper will be evaluated by how thoughtfully and thoroughly you do the following:
- center on a thesis that asserts a central contention regarding the ad's persuasive purposes (its claim) and describes its persuasive strategies.
- build an interpretation/analysis of the ad that.
4 identifies important verbal aspects of the ad.
4 identifies important visual/symbolic aspects of the ad.
4 describes the intended rhetorical effect of those aspects on the ad's desired audience.
- present a larger conclusion based on the thesis that places this particular ad within the geography of the American cultural landscape.
- demonstrate careful proofreading.
Attachment:- Analysis.pdf