Design Principles of Advertising and Communications
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8. Go to Adbusters.org and check out their ad spoofs https://www.adbusters.org/gallery/spoofads The great thing about spoof ads is they use the very same tools against the advertiser. Spoof ads often present a side of a product that is not generally advertised.
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Editor's Notes
A basic media literacy skill is “ deconstruction .” This is the careful and close analysis of a piece of media, looking beneath the surface – the characters, plot, language, etc. – to understand its deeper meanings. Any piece of media – a magazine ad, a sitcom, a conversation, a feature film, a TV commercial, or whatever – can be analyzed in this way. There is no one “correct” way to deconstruct a media example. One of the basic concepts of media literacy is that individuals construct their own meanings from media. This applies to the deconstruction process as well.
Analyzing ads is the easiest way to learn about all persuasion techniques. Ads are usually seen in carefully crafted packages (30-second spots on TV, radio, or in print) with coherent messages, involving simple transactions ("buy this"). Other kinds of persuasion (political, social, religious) are harder to analyze because the subjects are more complex, the emotional issues are more involving, and we experience them in bits and fragments (in headlines, TV news, in random discussions) often edited by others .
Basic & Simple are the obvious stages to hook the TV viewer.. .
Recognize that a 30-second spot TV ad is a synthesis, the end-product of a long, complex, composition process. Many specialists (writers, researchers, editors, psychologists, actors, artists, camera crews) may have spent months putting together the parts: every scene, every word, every image, every sound, every camera angle, every detail in the background. Ads targeted at kids (often using "cool" kids as the actors within the ad) are created by adults very specialized in their jobs. TV Ads: Use the 1-2-3-4-5 sequence of "the pitch" as a fingertip formula ( starting with your thumb ), as a useful memory device to organize your analysis: 1 . HI (attention-getting), 2. TRUST ME (confidence- building), 3. YOU NEED (desire-stimulating), 4. HURRY (urgency-stressing), 5. BUY (response- seeking). This sequence focuses your attention on the hidden superstructure , or the deep structure, common to all ads. Seek dominant impressions, but relate them to the whole. You can't analyze everything. So, focus on what seems (to you) to be the overall tone, or the general feeling, or the most noticeable, or the most interesting elements in an ad: for example, an intense urgency appeal, or a very strong authority figure , or a warm "feel good" emotional tone. By relating these to the overall context of "the pitch," your analysis can be systematic, yet flexible, appropriate to the situation.
Recognize surface variations. In 30 seconds, a TV ad may have 50 quick-cut shots of " good times " (happy people, sports fun, drinking cola); or 1 slow tracking scene of an old-fashioned sleigh ride through the woods, ending at "home," with a warm "Season's Greetings to Your Family" -- a " feel good " ad from an aerospace corporation; or a three-scene drama : a headache problem suffered by a "friend figure," with a solution offered by an "authority figure," and a final grateful smile from the relieved sufferer. But, the structure underneath is basically the same. Visuals imply. Nonverbals imply. They do not state explicit, rational messages. They imply or suggest emotional feelings and attitudes. Whenever visuals and nonverbals (or highly suggestive, vague words with multiple connotations) are used, different observers will infer different meanings. Thus, observers co-create. A message sender implies ; a receiver infers. Sometimes, we are set up to infer the wrong things, or to "jump to conclusions," set up for self-deception . Ads will not explicitly promise happiness, success, or popularity, but will show such scenes and let the visuals imply. Different ads have different target audiences . When ads are not linked to our own specific needs, either we tend to ignore them, or to find fault with them. Many people call some ads "stupid" because they don't realize that these ads are not targeted at them. Many people are so egocentric that they are unaware of the millions of other people in the audience.