Analyzing advertisements

Companies look for many ways to make customers know about their products. A real estate agent may send pictures of all the houses sold in the area to people interested in selling or buying a home. The ad may include prices in large font, text inside bright shapes, and an offer of a free estimate on what the house is worth. A tutoring company may send a brochure and include quotes from parents who say the child’s learning improved or quotes from students who say they had fun learning in the hope that it convinces people to use their service.

Flip through a flyer for a local store, listen to the radio, or go online. What are some techniques you notice advertisers use to try to get you to buy their products? Consider the following questions as you review the different media sources:

What is the purpose of the advertisement?

• Does it want you to buy something?
• Does it want you to persuade your parents to buy something?
• Does it try to convince you that you need a particular product?

What are some of the techniques that the advertisement uses to convince you that you should buy a product(s)?

• offers free gifts with purchase
• sale price for a limited time
• mentions the product is very popular
• someone famous endorses or promotes the product
• the advertisement includes information about special ingredients
• words like “incredible” or “amazing” are used to describe the product

Task 1: Designing an advertisement for a school item

Design an advertisement for an item that could be used in school. You may use any medium to create your advertisement. This means you can create a TV advertisement, radio advertisement, print advertisement, Internet advertisement, the list goes on!

Student Tips

Questions to guide your design!

Consider the following questions to help guide your design process:

• Who is your target audience? (student, Phys. Ed teacher, French teacher, lunch supervisor, caretaker)
• What are some techniques that you will use to convince your audience that they need to buy this product or service?
• What type of images will you use?
• What type of music will you use?
• What size and style of text will you use?

Review your learning

Take a moment to review your learning. Reflect on the advertisements you have created and consider the following questions. You may record your responses using a method of your choice.

• What was difficult about making your two advertisements?
• What did you use to help you with ideas?
• Which techniques did you use more of? Why?
• Why is it helpful to understand how advertisements work?

Reflection

How do you feel about what you have learned in this activity?  Which of the next four sentences best matches how you are feeling about your learning? Press the button that is beside this sentence.

I feel...

I have an excellent understanding of the concepts I have a very good understanding of the concepts I have some understanding but need to review some more my understanding of the concepts needs a lot more work

Now, record your ideas about your feelings using a voice recorder, speech-to-text, or writing tool.