An analysis - any analysis - consists of taking the object of analysis apart and discovering what makes it work. This, your next assignment, asks that you analyze a printed advertisement by breaking it into its component parts to discover its appeal. Thus, the first thing you should do is to go on a search by looking through several magazines to find an advertisement which has strong personal appeal for you. (This appeal could be either negative or positive -- your choice.) Tear or cut the ad from the magazine and include it with your essay. Your main purpose, then, is to examine the ad, breaking it down and analyzing it to discover whether it makes an ethical appeal logical appeal, or emotional appeal, or is mixed. On the basis of what you decide, determine whether or not this is a successful ad. What follows are the three basic appeals all advertising makes.
The ethical appeal focuses on the famous person in the ad selling the product (who could be anyone from a baseball player to a movie star) and would have you believe that he or she is (1) good and responsible, (2) knows what he or she is doing, and (3) has the reader's best interest at heart. In other words, this appeal sells the product by selling the person selling the product. An ad has no ethical appeal unless there is a famous person in the ad selling the product or service.
The logical appeal focuses on the product itself. This appeal sells the product by selling the special characteristics and features of the product. The features or characteristics listed should be factual or objective and not simply used as an assertion by the manufacturer or advertiser to claim that the product is "better" than the competition's.
The emotional appeal focuses on emotions that the advertiser knows we all have. This appeal plays on our desire to be attractive to the opposite sex, our desire to be popular and the like, or else it plays on our fears --such as our fears of ill-health, offending others, et cetera. It frequently uses mass psychology and illogical means to achieve its ends ("Everybody is using Flub -- you should too"), and may even play upon guilt or pity to sell the product, as ads for charity and insurance so often do.
Any lead-in you might want to give to your analysis is fine and could develop into a paragraph by itself, but certainly at the beginning of your essay in the first paragraph, no later than the second paragraph, give an identification of the ad by telling the reader what magazine or newspaper the ad came from along with its date of publication, and then tell the reader what product or service is advertised in the ad. In the next section, give a brief description of the ad, both visually and verbally (the words used) as exactly as you can, but summarizing where necessary. Do not assume that the reader has the ad in front of him. Keep the description reasonably short -- say five to ten sentences and no more than two paragraphs. In the next section, analyze the ad in one paragraph or more, pointing out the particular elements in the ad which led you to conclude that the ad has one or more of the appeals listed above. (An ad frequently has two appeals, a primary one and a secondary one. On rare occasions, it has a third.) Be sure that you clearly identify the appeal or appeals that you find in the ad and back that conclusion up with examples. (You could also start with the conclusion and then give evidence to support it.) This analysis is the heart of your paper, so make it as detailed as possible. At your option, you might want to finish your paper with an evaluation, telling your reader whether or not you think the ad is successful or not (and why).
Here are some questions you can ask yourself to help with your analysis. (You are under no obligation to use all of them.) Identification: In what publication did you find this advertisement? What product or service is the ad trying to sell? Analysis of Description: Focus on the graphic used and ask: How much of a picture is there? Is it a photograph or a drawing and why? What message does it convey?. What are the colors used -- full color or black and white -- and what feelings do these suggest to you? Now focus on the verbal element and ask: What are the words used and what message do they convey? Do the words convey more than one message, even a message beyond mere words? What is the overall design of the ad -- full page or something less -- and is the design unified? Does the ad as a whole convey one message or several? Analysis of the Appeal: Toward what kind of a person or what group of people is this ad directed? What evidence do you have for this conclusion? Does this ad have a primary appeal and then a secondary appeal? What are they? A third? What is it? What specific elements in this ad led you to conclude that it had this or that appeal as primary, secondary, etc.? In a final, evaluation paragraph, you might want to list reasons for your believing this ad to be either successful or unsuccessful -- although this paragraph is not absolutely necessary.
OUTLINE FOR AN ANALYSIS OF AN ADVERTISEMENT
Title: Do not give your paper the same title as the headline of the ad you are analyzing. If you use the ad's headline in your title, title your paper, An Analysis of -- and then use the headline.
Introduction: One or Two Paragraphs You might want to begin with a clever lead-in if you have one. This, indeed, might take up an entire paragraph by itself. If not or if your lead-in consists of only one or two sentences, then next identify the ad. That is, tell the reader what product or service the advertisement is selling, and then tell the reader what publication the ad was clipped from along with the date of that publication.
Body: One Paragraph Give a physical description of the ad, one which adequately describes the ad, both visually and verbally. The visual portion of an ad is called its "graphic design." The words used in an ad collectively are called "copy." Copy can be divided into"headlines" and "bodycopy," and you can no doubt distinguish between the two types yourself. The "product" is that object or service the advertiser is trying to sell, and the "logo" is the trade mark. (Placement of the logo and the product in the ad are very important, by the way.) You should try hard to keep this section as brief as possible, remembering that it is your task to analyze the ad's appeal, not simply to describe it. However, some ads are complicated and obviously more space must be devoted to describing the complicated ad than one would have to devote to the simple ad. But by no means should this description portion take up the greatest amount of space in your essay. If the description of the ad runs short, it can be incorporated into the first paragraph. If the description section runs long, possibly it should be divided into two paragraphs by itself. Strive to keep the description-of-the-ad portion of your essay short, but certainly it must be said that it needs to be long enough so that you can refer back to the specific things you need to refer back to in the analysis portion of your paper.
Body: One Paragraph An analysis of the appeal of the ad should be in this portion of your essay. Make it our longest section. Re-read the three appeals as listed on the first side of this information sheet. Be careful with this portion of your essay. It is the heart of your paper. Ignore it and you have not done an analysis. First identify the appeal (or appeals). Next analyze the visual element (graphic design) of your ad. Next analyze the verbal element (copy). Show how the two elements work together to produce the appeal. Consistently point to some feature of the ad, analyze and interpret it, then tie it to the appeal. Do this as many times as necessary for as many appeals as you find in the ad, but be sure that you analyze and interpret every example that you use, as well. You cannot let the reader guess or draw his own conclusions about the appeal: you must tell him as clearly as you can. Usually the analysis portion of your paper will take more than one paragraph. If the ad has more than one appeal, then there is a greater likelihood of this portion of your paper's going to two paragraphs. Be sure and identify and analyze all appeals hidden in your ad. Clearly state each appeal you say your ad has , and then give sufficient evidence for every appeal you say that your ad has. Do not refer to the advertiser as "they" and "them." You must be aware that an advertising agency actually created and placed the ad in the magazine. If you must refer to the group who created the ad, refer to it as "the agency" or "the advertiser," and then use the pronoun "it" to refer to that "agency" or "he" to refer to that "advertiser."
Conclusion: One Paragraph You might wish your last paragraph to be an evaluation, telling your reader whether or not you think the ad is successful. However, if your analysis has been strong enough, you may not even need an evaluation. If you decide on this type of final conclusion, be sure to tell your reader why you think that the ad you chose is successful and then give at least some supporting evidence.
Caution: Your task in writing this paper is to analyze the appeal of the ad you have chosen. You should not stop with the description, but more important, it is not your business to sell or recommend the product or service which the ad puts on display. Your own feelings about the product have little bearing on the appeal (or appeals) that the advertisement uses. You may love the product or else you may hate it. Either way, those feelings are more or less irrelevant. Concentrate on the ad itself. Again, our primary task is to analyze the appeal that the ad makes. Do it well and you will have a successful analysis. Don't do it at all and you have no essay of analysis.