Ad Analysis 1

Page history last edited by Abigail Heiniger 15 years, 11 months ago

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Introduction to Project One

Objectives:

Introduce Project One (review project objectives, requirements, and evaluative criteria)
Provide students inventional strategies for starting the Ad Analysis assignment

Notes:

As you can see, this page for this session contains very little text; this is because the session is focused around open discussion and a short group project (rather than the usual breakdown of a reading, discussion of written responses, etc.)
When covering the instructions for Project One, be sure to stress the way the project will be evaluated (see the O.A.R.S. rubric; this is also a good time to remind students of the "C or better" requirement for 1020)
If you assign the Barthes' piece, you may want to spend some time asking students about their general response to it and/or identifying which of strategies used in that piece may be useful to them. If you do not assign a written response for this reading (I do not), then be prepared for the fact many students will not read it.
If you review the sample student papers (linked from the Project One page), a good way to begin is by asking students which essay the like the best, find out why, and then use that as an entry point for detailing what makes a "good" or "bad" execution of this assignment.
This session is a also a good opportunity to do some brainstorming activities around how to come up a thesis statement, supporting arguments, etc., for the Ad Analysis. I use the Monsanto ad below to discuss how a company's image is tied to their advertising strategies, and then break the students into small groups to come up with a thesis statement for an ad analysis of the WSU commercial. We review what they came up with during the next session.

Project One Examples

Fun with Ad Analysis

Advertising Nationalism and National Identity

What is a "Canadian"?

Watch "I Am Canadian" commercials:

Read "I AM CANADIAN Identity, Territory, and the National Landscape": http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/theory_and_event/v004/4.4manning.html

How do these "I AM CANADIAN" commercials define "Canadian"?

What do they contrast "Canadian" identity with?
What face do they put on "Canadian" identity?
What is the purpose of defining "Canadian" this way (what does Molson Canadian Beer gain from the "I AM CANADIAN" campaign)?
Who does this definition include?