Advertising Analysis Checklist

A helpful handout you'll receive in class tomorrow:

Checklist for Advertising Analysis

For each advertisement you analyze, make sure you’ve answered each question that follows. If you haven’t, you probably haven’t analyzed the advertisement fully and completely. A thorough analysis picks every piece of the advertisement apart. You should be thinking about each advertisement, not just quickly writing, “It’s telling you to buy product X.”

1.     Did you incorporate the verbal message (what’s written on the page) and the visual message (the images on the page) into your overall analysis of the message? This is where you should analyze every part of the ad and question why the advertisers chose to put each detail in the advertisement.

2.     Did you explain exactly what the advertisement wants you to do?

3.     How does the advertisement persuade you to do what they want you to do? In other words, did you explain the persuasive techniques?

4.     If you identified persuasive techniques in the advertisement, did you explain how they used them? In other words, if they used bribery to persuade you, you should explain HOW exactly they use bribery. Example: “The advertisement offers a free subscription to a magazine if the consumer purchases ten mocha lattes.”

5.     Did you explain what impact the persuasive technique has on the message? Does it strengthen the message? Is it effective? Does it appeal to a certain audience?

6.     Did you identify a specific audience for the advertisement? Did you get REALLY specific? What race, class, gender, age, religion, etc. did the company want to buy this product? How do you know? What is in the advertisement that suggests this to you? Example: The Jennifer Hudson Weight Watchers advertisement is targeting young, African American females as its audience (although others could be easily persuaded) because they use a beautiful, young African American celebrity to endorse their product.

7.     Finally, did you think creatively? Did you really analyze the advertisement? Did you break apart each and every detail? Did you spend more than ten minutes? Good. Spend ten more.