Overview
For this assignment you will analyze four commercials to consider whether and how corporations reproduce dominant ideologies about gender, sex, and sexuality to promote their products, and how such messages either maintain or subvert existing systems of power and privilege.
Page Length: 5-6 pages Paper Formatting: Double-spaced; 12 pt. Times New Roman; 1” margins; name, date, and course number in upper left corner of first page, page number in header or footer of subsequent pages Citation Style: MLA with Works Cited page (all in-text citations must include the page number where the idea/quote was sourced) Source Requirement: [1] One relevant and significant peer-reviewed scholarly book or journal article and [2] at least three relevant supporting citations from the Unit II course course text
Assignment Steps:
- Select four commercials from among the options posted on Canvas: choose two commercials from among those targeted at men and two commercials from among those targeted at women.
- Analyze the codes (i.e., the audio and visual elements) in the commercials to identify patterns or themes related to the representation and commodification of masculinity and femininity. How do men appear in commercials directed at men? What about women in commercials directed at women? What do the various signifiers in the commercials communicate about gender? What sort of language is used to promote the product, and how does it help construct gender in particular ways? As with the conversation analysis paper, be sure to consider what is missing or absent from the commercials in your analysis too.
1. Write an analytic essay in which you forward an overarching claim (i.e., thesis) concerning the representation of gender in your selected commercials and develop your claim with supporting evidence from the commercials, themselves, the Unit II course text, and one relevant and significant peer-reviewed scholarly source. All source material must be directly-cited (i.e., not paraphrased) and citations should be consistently formatted throughout the paper according to MLA standards, which include the page number where the quote may be found. Conclude your analysis by considering how the representations either maintain or subvert existing systems of power and privilege in the US as they relate to gender.
COMMERCIAL OPTIONS
Commercials directed at female consumers (select two)
Commercials directed at male consumers (select two)