Power Point Propaganda Presentation~Critically Analyzing an Advertisement
Due: Friday~14 February
Objective: To discern an advertisement’s faulty logic by applying the logical fallacies and appeals to the ad.
Medium: A Power Point Presentation consisting of eight to ten slides.
Point Value: 50
Step I: Peruse color or BW print ads found in a magazine or newspaper.
Step II:Carefully examine the advertisement. Look at the lighting, shading, colors, and prominent placement of specific items. Do you remember the gentleman’s red tie in the Microsoft ad? The tie was in a prominent place in the advert photo, the tie matched the financial institution’s logo, and the tie was the symbolic color of red to allude to strength.
Step III:Take a photo of the ad to include in your Power Point.
Step IV:Begin the process of recording your findings via written discourse that willanalyze the ad. These are the slides necessary to make this Power Point effective and to marshal evidence that you have critically analyzed the ad you selected.
Analysis: First Reaction: In this slide, you will give an HONEST account of what your first reaction was to the print ad. Ways you can begin your sentence might include: My initial response to the (insert ad/product name) advertisement was that . ... Give three sentences that describe your initial feelings as you viewed this ad. Was the ad colorful? Suggestive? Did the ad appeal to your senses, or your sympathies? Remember, advertisers are trying to appealor persuade you by reaching out to your logic by using examples (logos) or your sympathies and emotions (pathos). Does the ad appear stable, sound, reliable (ethos)? Which appeal is at work in your ad? These three appeals stem from Aristotle (about 400 B.C., so these appeals/powers of persuasion have been around for thousands of years!).
Purpose: What was the advertiser’s purpose in presenting this ad? Was it to persuade, inform, compare / contrast, entertain, or explain? Remember, the four major modes of discourse: Persuasive, Expository, Narrative, Descriptive can also work in the world of advertising. In this slide, you might want to begin your text with “This advertisement’s purpose is to . . . “
Audience: What is the advertisement’s target audience?
Subtleties: Here is where analyzing an ad gets downright fun. Here is where you can apply the Logical Fallacies that we discussed in class. You are going to need this card to help you punctuate your text with the subtleties of the ad. Note the lighting, use of color, models, product placement, and the text (called copy in the advertising world). You will probably write three to four sentences in this section.
Rhetorical Appeals: For an in-depth discussion of Rhetorical Appeals, go to my website and print, punch, and tab the “Aristotelian Logic/Appeals” handout. We also will discuss these Aristotelian appeals in class. (I also briefly mentioned these appeals in the “Analysis” section of this handout a few paragraphs earlier.) What you will want to include here is which appeal, whether it is ethos, logos, or pathos, is most prominent in the ad. What appealed to you as you viewed this ad? Did the ad pull at your heartstrings a little? Then the appeal of pathos was being used by the advertiser to evoke emotion form you. Did the ad make you agree with the product because of its reliability and performance? If it did, then it probably used examples (logos) to emphasize its point, in order to stress the product’s credibility (ethos). Expound on these appeals in this slide.
Connections: Do you agree, disagree with this ad? Are you going to use this product? Why or why not? Bring the product to your buying level.
Awareness: What kind of awareness is this product generating? Will this product enhance your life? Why or why not? Was this ad effective in capturing your attention enough to purchase the product? How so? Was it through ethos and logos and NOT through pathos or other fluff?
Advertiser: What was the advertiser’s objective?
Questions: Use this slide to pose questions for your audience. Questions such as: “What do you think is the advertiser’s objective in advertising this product?” “Do the claims match the product’s efficacy and performance?”