Advertisement Essay

Advertising Essay Assignment
The marketplace plays an important role in technological development. For this reason I want you to analyze a full-page (or multi-page) magazine advertisement for an everyday product (shoes, jewelry, car, food, drugs…etc.) for your essay assignment. The advertisement must be from no earlier than August 2020. (Failure to follow these guidelines will result in a 20 point deduction.) and your choice must be made before September 12th. FYI: When choosing an advertisement, it would be a good idea to pick a magazine and product that you appreciate. Also remember that you can access digital versions of some popular magazines through the TCTC library (using Flipster). That is a back up if you do not already have a magazine or if you do not want to purchase one.
I expect you to write an essay that analyzes your advertisement without the use of any outside resources (in other words, just common knowledge, the magazine, textbook and supplemental articles). I will allow some personal experiences as a source of information if those experiences directly relate to the product being advertised. However, you do not want to rely solely on personal knowledge because it is limited in its ability to support assertions. I am aware that your book has limited information, but “limited” information is not the same as “no” information. Obviously your text will not be dealing directly with the product advertised, but there are several articles that deal with how society views technology and other articles that will show similar controversies to the ones associated with your product. This is important context for your analysis. Make good use of the sources you have.
In your essay you will have to address all of the following questions:
• What population demographics were the advertisers trying to reach? Consider the magazine type and the articles located around the advertisement.
• What techniques were being used to encourage consumers to purchase the advertised product? Consider typeface, color, product placement, slogans and other features. How effective are these techniques?
• How does the product advertised fit into each of the 5 ideas discussed by Neil Postman in Chapter 1?
How to carry out this assignment:
• Establish an introduction that introduces the topic and provides a complete thesis statement. The thesis should clearly answers all of the guiding questions. I should know exactly what you are arguing from the introduction. Accomplish this task and do not be distracted by nonexistent rules stating a thesis statement must be one sentence. I am asking for seven distinct assertions here.
• The first two paragraphs of the essay will relate to your analysis of the advertisement. One paragraph should relate to a discussion of the audience for the advertisement. Clues found in the magazine itself are critical here, but do not ignore the actual advertisement. The other paragraph will relate to techniques used in the advertisement and an assertion on the effectiveness of these techniques. Consider color, font, images, messages and other elements for this paragraph.
• Give the five ideas from Postman their own paragraphs. In these paragraphs briefly explain the relevant “idea” (using the Postman article for support) and then apply it to the advertised product. Then demonstrate similar relationships in your course readings (text and supplemental articles). This last bit can be tricky. If you get stuck, then reach out to me and we can discuss options. For these paragraphs, some specific personal experiences can be used as well if you have used the product, but do not neglect those course resources. I want to see how you make the connections between your product and a wide variety of the course readings.
• Finally, have a one paragraph conclusion (offering no new information) and a Works Cited.
This assignment is broken into four parts:
• Topic Selection (5% of course grade)
• Essay Outline (2.5% of course grade)
• Essay Paragraph (2.5% of course grade)
• Final Essay (20% of course grade)