Essay #2 Prompt: LOOKING DEEPER
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Due Dates and Points:
Zero Draft due Wednesday, 2/23 (5 pts)–yes, this is the same due the revision of
Essay #1 is due. Remember: A Zero Draft is a very informal draft and does not have
to be complete; don't overthink it!
First Draft due Monday, 2/28 (At the beginning of class for our Peer Response
Workshop) (10 pts)
Revised Draft due Monday, 3/7 (10 pts)
Clarification: This paper should be a minimum of 750 words, which breaks down to around three
full pages, typed, double spaced,with a header and title in Times New Roman Font.
Every advertisement contains a clear claim of policy: you should buy this product.
Advertisements support their claims with a complex and creative blend of elements,
including text, music, images, use of celebrities, appeals to our psychological needs, etc. As
critical thinkers, it is essential that we understand the tactics and techniques that
advertisers employ so that we can make thoughtful and informed choices. To this purpose,
this assignment asks you to analyze one advertisement in depth and to consider the ways
in which advertisers use cultural images and associations to manipulate consumers.
Select an advertisement from a magazine, TV, or the internet. Be sure to select
an actual separate and autonomous advertisement for a product rather than an
article, TV show, or webpage. You may choose to analyze the same
advertisement that you explored in C.R.A.W.L. #3, or select a new
advertisement and start from scratch. Remember the difference between
summary and analysis as explained in our text: “Whereas summary most often
answers the question of what a text says, an analysis looks at how a text makes
its point” (Hacker and Sommers 64).
2) Write an analysis of the ad using some of the following questions as prompts:
☼ What is the product or service being advertised? In which magazine, website, or TV
show did the advertisement appear?
☼ Who seems to be the ad’s intended audience? Who or what is left out or
misrepresented?
☼ What cultural values seem to underlie the advertisement? If an advertisement equates
shopping from a huge selection of goods and services with freedom, what does this say
about the relationship between commerce and freedom in popular culture?
☼ On a similar note, in what ways does the advertisement link popular cultural values to
the product it advertises?
☼ What messages or types of appeals are used to sell the product/service? How does the
ad target our psychological needs or appeal to cultural values?
☼ How effectively does the ad use images or visuals? How important are the visual images
to the argument?
☼ How effectively does it use text? What does the text add to the argument?