Homework: Advertising Appeals

You need to answer the following questions using the Lines of Appeal handout.

Be thorough with your answers and use a mixture of print based adverts - that is those you see on billboards and in magazines, and audio/visual adverts - those you see on telly, at the cinema and online.

Here are the questions - pay attention to what you need to do after the questions...

1. Find an advertising campaign that uses humour as its main persuasive device. Analyse the humour use and discuss who the target audience are using the audience classification methods we have studied.

2. Write down a slogan for a product recently advertised. Analyse the language devices used to say why it is an effective and memorable slogan - how does it speak to an audience?

3. Find an advertising campaign that uses shock tactics - analyse why an audience would find it so shocking?

4. Find an advert which stereotypes a group of people, what stereotypes are there in the advert?

5. Find an example of intertextuality used in an advert, how is it used - who will recognise the reference?

6. Find an example of elite persons being used in advertising. What do they represent to the audience, why have they been used?

7. Find an example of 'reward & punishment' persuasion in current campaigns. What ideologies are being rewarded and which punished?

You must complete all of the answers and you must post them onto the blog - along with the adverts you have analysed. If you can't remember how to post videos then click here.

When you post them label them with your name and the label: Lines of Appeal




Below are some frequent errors - make sure that you don't fall into the same trap...

• Not enough detail in analysis 
• Overly generalised answers 
• Not using the actual Lines of Appeal handout to complete the answers 
• Not being thorough when looking for suitable advertisements 
• Sometimes using ads from the internet which are not actually adverts! 
• Not thinking about the other audience theories that we have already studied 
• Ignoring the ideologies that are encoded into the advert – i.e. not realising that adverts do not just sell us a product – they are often selling us ideas, lifestyles and concepts 
• Not using the visual codes and written codes from the actual adverts as evidence

Here are the sample answers - make sure you read them to understand the level of depth I am expecting...

Passive & Active Audiences: Homework Questions

The following questions are all about the different Audience debates surrounding Effects and Reception.

If you have any notes missing or are unsure of any of the models that we looked at then you can look at the resources we used by clicking on the link below:

• Passive & Active Audiences
• Audience Effects debates
• Uses & Gratifications
• Encoding/Decoding

Beneath the questions are some sample answers - you won't be able to copy them because you will need to choose your own texts, however after you have written your answers you may want to take a look to see if your responses are of a similar standard.





Here are the questions...

Active and Passive audiences:

1. a) Name two theories which are associated with the effects debate
b) Explain these two theories using examples.

2. With reference to examples, explain the differences between ‘active’ and ‘passive’ audience reception.

3. How far do you think that violence on television causes violent behaviour?

4. Are active audience theories more acceptable than passive audience theories? Give reasons for your answers.

5. Choose a media text which you particularly like and apply the ‘Uses and Gratifications’ theory to explain why you enjoy it so much.

6. Find an advertisement online, in a magazine or in a newspaper.
a) Write down what the Preferred reading would be.
b) Make suggestions for an Oppositional reading of the advert.









Those were the questions - now here are some sample answers, only use them to check that your own answers are thorough enough.

Audience model answers2 from sssfcmedia

Classifying Audiences: Homework Questions

The following questions are all about the four different ways of defining and classifying audiences that we have learned - answer them thoroughly.

If you have any notes missing or are unsure of any of the ways in which we classified audiences then you can look at the resources we used by clicking on the link below:

Audience Classification

Beneath the questions are some sample answers - you won't be able to copy them because you will need to choose your own texts, however after you have written your answers you may want to take a look to see if your responses are of a similar standard.

Here are the questions...

Defining/classifying audiences:

1. a) The following are categories used by some advertisers to help them classify different audiences. Choose 4 media texts you are familiar with which would appeal to each of them individually and explain, in detail, with evidence, why it would be suitable.

The Mainstream                                  The Aspirer               

The Succeeder                                    The Explorer             

  b) How useful do you think these kinds of categories are helping to define audience types?

c) Find out what is on the TV right now – choose one show and create an Audience Profile for a typical audience member using Hartley & Fiske’s subjectivities.

d) Based on Lifestyle Categories, for the four texts you chose for question (a) and the TV show you chose for (c) – decide which audience of the people on the Lifestyles Categories sheet would be a likely audience member.

Those were the questions - now here are some sample answers, only use them to check that your own answers are thorough enough.

Audience qs part1 model answers from sssfcmedia

First Textual Analysis: Homework

Make sure you have plenty of notes from the introductory lessons, particularly:

New Terms & some Image Analysis
Photographic Composition

Once you have done that your task is pretty simple...

Analyse the Armani advert in between 500 and 750 words

There are some things that you must make sure you discuss and include:

• You must analyse the body language of the models
• You must analyse the photographic composition and techniques used
• You must discuss the iconic celebrity status of the couple and why they have been chosen
• You must use the correct media terminology

Don't forget that the key terms of analysis you need to use are:

Signifier & Signified

Denoted & Connoted

Make sure you know which one is which!

Writing Paragraphs: Hints

Think of your paragraphs of analysis as being in two parts:

1. When writing paragraphs you should start by describing what you see - either a photographic technique or the body language or the use of colour and so on. This first part should be descriptive but short and to the point.
2. Then write your analysis - this should be much longer and discuss all the things that are associated with the elements you have described - if you have talked about the image being black and white - say why. If you have discussed the use of shadow say what mood or tone it creates. If you've talked about the celebrity models - say what they represent to an audience. This is all part of the analysis - simple rule is this:

NEVER JUST DESCRIBE,
ALWAYS SAY WHY!