last updated 10/8/2013

1. Who the advertiser is (usually it's obvious or in a tag) -- (but sometimes it is not clear and you should ask why!)
    
2. Who is the intended audience - think about it!  These features can reveal who the ad is targeting.

 
• Where the ad is placed in the publication, or website, or programming
• Who is in the ad and how they are treated
• What direct verbal references are there to the intended audience
• Who does the music and other pop culture identifiers connect with (or is associated with a particular audience).
• Who appears as the source of the message (who will the audience identify with)
• What style/ lifestyle is shown (the lifestyle depicted and who wants it)

• U.S. ads are dominated by attractive young women, BUT

• There are more men directly associated with products than women in ads

• Americans disappear from ads as they age
   
• Ads generally focus on material possessions and connect personal worth and fulfilling social needs to materiality
   
• Ads imply "normality" and, thus, narrow diversity of social reality

• Stereotypes (a form of schemata) often appear in ads by ...

• Ethnicity
• GenderOccupation
• Role
• Values

  In-class Discussion Assignment for Thursday/Tuesday

Find an advertisement (commercial, public service, political, etc.) in a magazine and bring it to class (or view an ad in another medium and write a description of it in some detail).  Be prepared to discuss:

• What does the ad reveal (see 1 and 2 above)?

• What does the ad says about the "nature of social reality" in our lives?

  • personal and social values implied

  • relationship styles implied

  • distortions of reality

  • schemata

• Why you think the ad works to accomplish its purpose (or does not)?