Advertisement

Write an essay that describes, summarizes, and analyzes the underlying ideas present in an advertisement of your choice, either television or print.

The purpose of this assignment is to represent the advertisement accurately through description and support claims about how the advertisement functions by explaining the underlying assumptions of the ad. Describe your advertisement in vivid, expressive language and analyze how the advertisement works.

In other words, what ideas about power, desire, and representation are being displayed in the ad, and why? How does the advertisement work? While not required, you may want to conduct research on either the product being presented or the company selling the product in order to support your thesis. If you do additional research, cite all of your sources properly in MLA format and provide works cited page. Taken together, your description, summary, and analysis should be a coherent essay, with the main idea (thesis) and connections between description and analysis.

All essays must be typed, double-spaced, composed in 12 point Times New Roman font and 3-5 pages in length. Please provide a link to the original print or television advertisement (or upload a photo of the ad).  Be sure to use an advertisement that is clearly trying to sell a product.  What you should choose should not merely be a public service announcement (i.e. a call to end homelessness, ban guns, say no to drugs, etc.).