Overview
For your first major project, you are asked to select an advertisement and write a 750-1000 word essay analyzing the ad and explaining why it matters. Your essay should have an introduction, a body, a conclusion, and a clear thesis statement explaining your overall argument about the ad's message and significance.
The second lecture video for this module discussed some common mistakes that get made when selecting ads and making an arugment for this essay, so make sure you have reviewed that. A good advertisement for this project is likely going to be one for a product or brand that you have some familiarity with and interest in and should clearly and easily connect to a broader cultural theme of your choosing.
This advertisement MUST be a print advertisement (in other words, NOT a video but a single still image). It should be for a consumer product or service, NOT a non-profit, PSA, or media text (like a movie or video game). You can identify an advertisement through search on your own, look in magazines, or use one of these archives links below to choose an ad (make sure to select print media when you search):
If you choose an ad that is vintage or from a different country, you need to address when/where it ran in your analysis. No matter what your essay should state what the ad is for and when/where it is from.
While there is no one right way to analyze an advertisement, remember to think about the ad's overall cultural message (i.e. what it tells us about our society's values, fantasies, and desires) and what the connotations of its individual elements are (e.g. the text, the colors, the model's appearance and identity, etc. etc.).
Remember that you are NOT analyzing how the company is trying to sell the product and thinking about it from their perspective, but rather considering its impact on the audience. What sociocultural messages does the ad present, in other words, fantasies, dreams, and ideals does it evoke? How does it position the product as a gateway to acquiring desirable qualities?
https://www.adforum.com/creative-work/search