Analyzing Ads Essay Text

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To sell products and services, advertisers appeal to one or more of fifteen emotions: 13. In addition, i have found, most advertisements also use a visual metaphor, texts which often involve a play on words and suggests the visual metaphor, and, of course, various visual design elements such as models, props, color, size, shape, and texture. To provide a model, i then offer this sample five paragraph essay, first identifying the thesis sentence and the topic sentences, which i underline in the essay itself: thesis: to sell a men's magazine, the ché advertisement in commuter world magazine uses a metaphor to equate the product to a better dream world and shows a promiscuous young woman approaching a trolley station. Topic sentence 1: the advertisements text, lets keep dreaming of a better world, equates ché magazine to a place in which beautiful, promiscuous young women are readily available to any man.

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Topic sentence 2: the female model is shown from behind, so that the viewer is encouraged to see her as an object rather than as a person. Topic sentence 3: the model approaches a trolley station, which symbolizes the connection that she intends to make with the train that will take her to her destination. Heres the result: introductory paragraph: mens magazines feature articles concerning topic of interest to their subscribers: alcoholic beverages, sporty automobiles, hunting and fishing, politics, scientific and technological breakthroughs, workplace guidance, travel and tourism, and, of course, dating. Also boast of interviews with the rich and famous and of short stories by popular or even renown writers. The mainstay of such magazines, however, isnt the news, advice, humor, or fiction, but the photographs of beautiful young women wearing little or no clothing. It makes sense, then, that an advertisement for a mens magazine, whether foreign or domestic, would appeal to such periodicals strongest selling point.

If humor can be used to make the sales pitch, so much the better, but, when it comes to promoting mens magazines, nothing sells as well as sex, as marketers for the european mens magazine ché are well aware. The advertisement has a playful tone, suggesting that the better world to which it alludes would be a fun place to be, and the fun would be of a physically intimate variety. Following this fine print, as it were, is the logo that identifies the product that the advertisement is selling, ché. The model seems to represent the sort of fantasy girl that the magazine is apt to feature on a routine basis. By purchasing or subscribing to this magazine, customers gain admittance to the better world of fun loving, available dream girls.

Body paragraph 2: the female model is shown from behind, so that the viewer is encouraged to see her as an object rather than as a person. her face is not shown. Therefore, the emphasis of the picture is on her body, rather than her face, on the physical rather than the personal. She wears a simple, green top that exposes her midriff, a charm bracelet, and a white mini skirt. She is the largest object in the picture, and she is the closest to the images center, her positioning within the picture, like her size, emphasizing her over everything else that is depicted in the advertisement.

Next to the figure of the young woman herself, the most outstanding prop in the picture is her skirt. It is short enough to reveal the lower portions of her buttocks, which are bare, suggesting that she either wears a thong or no underwear at all. The exposure of these parts of her anatomy draws the eye, as does the apparent fringe that adorns the bottom of her skirt, some of the tassels of which are missing, revealing the parts of her buttocks that show. There is something else odd about the fringe: the tassels, which are short, rectangular strips, bear printed text that is too small to read. However, on the seat of her skirt, in red cursive lettering, below which is an arrowhead, pointing downward, is the message, my number. This message makes it clear to the advertisements viewer that the text printed on the tassels identifies her telephone number.

Her skirt is itself an advertisement of the sort that includes, along its bottom edge, a series of tags that are printed with a telephone number to which those who are interested in the product or the service that the advertisement promotes may respond. It is based upon a play on words, alluding to the common phrase, i have your number. Body paragraph 3: the model approaches a trolley station, which symbolizes the connection that she intends to make with the train that will take her to her destination. the train represents opportunity. the model is approaching the station. If the viewer were present, he might meet her, and, if he were to join her on the trolley, the train might convey him or, rather, him and the young woman to a common destination. Dont miss the train! and represents a call to action, or, in the language of the trade, the closing sales pitch.

From a freudian point of view, the train is also a phallic symbol, which suggests, even more clearly, the sexual nature of the destination to which the young woman and her date will travel, if he calls her and arranges to meet her at the station. Concluding paragraph: if advertisements are any indicator of such matters, it seems safe to say that men and women are interested in vastly different types of pursuits. Advertisements in womens magazines indicate that women are interested in spotless kitchens, a healthy, well fed family, a clean home, fashionable clothing and accessories, travel, interior design, furniture, and business careers.

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Mens magazines advertisements suggest that their readers interests are fewer by far and simpler: food, sex, and cars. You may use fowles' classifications to help you determine and label the appeals you find, as did the student who wrote reese's peanut butter cup. Or you may use a more original approach, something that seems more unique to the advertisement, as did the students who wrote in search of good hair: optimum care's call for assimilation and from genesis to prince. You must label the appeals you are analyzing supply evidence from the text to support your identification of appeals explain how the textual evidence is intended to affect the viewer's mind and emotions link the appeals to the target audience. models how many are used? what gender? what do they look like? what are they wearing/doing? what are the expressions on their faces? what are they looking at? what are their body positions? what are these details meant to imply or evoke? 3. setting where is the scene set? what does this setting suggest about mood or emotion? how do the models relate to the setting? are they pointing to, leaning on, standing on or behind, looking down on, or approaching anything in the picture or anything outside the frame of the picture? 4. text what words are printed in the ad? what is the proportion of words to images? where are the words placed? what do font size and style suggest about the message in the text? how do they connect with the images? are there any key words? how do you know? what moods do the words evoke? what promises do the words make? 5.

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