Food Ad Deconstructions
The following lists will provide you and your students
plenty of opportunity to begin looking at print ads.

DECONSTRUCTING AN ADVERTISEMENT

1. Pick a commercial or print ad to deconstruct/analyze for this activity.

2. Describe/summarize what happens in this commercial/ad.

3. Name the main colors, graphics, slogans, quotes, and claims used in this ad. Which seems to be its main focus?

 4. Name one or two persuasion techniques used in this advertisement, and tell how you know that technique was used.

 5. Look at the person/people in this ad. How are they portrayed? Happy? Depressed? Angry? Bored? Is their image realistic? Which ethnicities/races are shown? What stereotypes are employed, if any, regarding that person/people?

 6. Do you see any gender stereotyping (roles that the male or female person in that ad seem to be filling)?

 7. Was there music in the commercial? What emotions did it arouse?

 8. What is the "message" the company wants you to get from the commercial/ad?

 9. Who is the target audience of this commercial/ad?

 10. What values are taught in this ad? (Look for: wedding rings, gender roles, clothes, attitudes, display of wealth or poverty, dominant or submissive roles, etc...)
Source: http://www.unm.edu/~abqteach/media_cus/01-04-11.htm

HOW TO READ ADS

First, note three key facts about advertising:

1.  Advertisers use emotional appeals to persuade even the most "educated" audiences to consume products and services.  Today's ads are by necessity anti- intellectual, simplifying all subject matter.  Reasonable, logical, and reflective thinking hinder the emotional process, and by extension, the consumptive process as well. The advertiser's motto must be: "Why ask why?”  (A slogan used to sell Bud Dry beer.)

2. The neuro-physiology of the brain determines the power of text, sound, and image-based media messages.  Images and music are immediately stored in more ancient parts of the brain which are most directly connected to the central nervous system.  Images arouse the strongest emotions, and are more persuasive than sound ("Seeing is believing.")  Together, images and music are more powerful than text. 

3.  Advertisers spend millions of dollars to research, write, shoot, test on focus groups, rewrite, re-shoot, test market, produce, and distribute an ad.  Most individuals cannot possibly spend as much time and energy in deconstructing an ad as an advertising agency spent to make it. 

With these three ideas in mind, follow the steps below to deconstruct an ad:

• Identify and describe the techniques of persuasion used.  See Techniques of persuasion for a comprehensive list.
  
  
• Identify and describe the filmic techniques and techno-effects used in the ad. 

   -         How is the scene framed?

   -         What camera angles and lighting techniques are used?

   -         Where is the viewer positioned?

   -         What computerized effects are used?

   -         What kind of music is used?

   -         How do all of these effects contribute to the ad's power? 
  

• Identify the story the ad is trying to tell, and the emotional appeals it uses. 

   -         What "problems" will the product solve?

   -         What are the associations the ad makes with the product? 

   -         What are the advertisers trying to get you to believe? 

   -         What messages is the ad trying to send? 

   -         What emotions does the ad appeal to? 

   -         What is the "logic" behind the ad? 
  

• Identify intended and unintended effects.

   -         Who is the target audience for the ad? How do you know?

   -         Imagine a wide spectrum of audience responses to the ad. What meanings
  could different audiences construct from the ad?

• Identify the marketing strategy of the ad.

   -         Why is this ad being shown?

   -         How long has it been running?

   -         What does the corporation running the ad hope it will do for their public relations or product "image?"
  
  Source: http://www.nmmlp.org/howtoreadads.htm

Deconstructing an Advertisement (MEF)
http://www.mediaed.org/handouts/pdfs/DeconstructinganAd.pdf