Assignments: Batch Two: Assignment Thirteen

Analyse the implied meanings in three minimally-verbal advertisements and their interpretation by consumers.

Guidance

For general guidance about what is expected in your essays for this module, see the general criteria.

What Key Features Do I Look For?

  • Familiarity with relevant texts
  • Evidence - the stronger the better
  • Argument - coherent and balanced
  • Theoretical discussion - relation to relevant theories
  • Understanding of relevant concepts
  • Reflexivity - reflections on methodology
  • Examples - insightfully analysed
  • Style - readability and effective presentation

Please remember to avoid footnotes and to include an alphabetical list of 'References' which have been cited in the text (not a Bibliography of anything you have read for the essay). This list should include author's names, date, book titles (in italics), place of publication and publisher. Within the text always cite author's surname, date and page number. Double-space your text and number your pages. For more detailed notes on writing essays in this department, click here.

Advice for this particular assignment:

You may not choose this assignment if you have already done assignment 1.

Choose ads that are primarily visual and have minimal verbal content in order to maximise the interpretation required. Choose at least one ad in which the product does not even appear (this will usually include at least the brand logo). How can you determine what is implied in each ad? Where the product is in some context, does the so-called 'objective correlative' help us to interpret an implied claim? How are the advertisers able to communicate with minimal verbal anchorage? To what extent do you need to draw on a) textual knowledge/codes (of ads) and b) social knowledge/codes? It is not your own interpretations that count here: interview at least 6 people in depth for their interpretations of what is implied by the ads and offer a critical commentary on any patterns in these responses. Do not simply reproduce their comments verbatim - all comments need your interpretation. Do not be satisfied with what they say the ads mean: dig deeper - try to get them to explain the reasons for each of their claims (and relate these to particular items of either social or textual knowledge). In relation to textual knowledge, ask them what other ads each ad remind them of (and how)? In relation to social knowledge, ask them what experience of the world someone would need in order to understand the ad. What do they all (broadly) agree about (check this, for instance, by asking them simply to describe the ads). How do they think the advertisers want them to react? What are the main ways in which they differ (check this by asking what they think each of the ads means)? Exactly what in the ad seems to lead to such disagreements? Do your interviewees fall into different groups within which the members share similar interpretations? Do the members of such groups have anything in common (e.g. does it seem to relate to age or sex)? The possibility that interpretations might differ in relation to age and sex means that you should ensure that your group represents both sexes and different age-ranges.

Note also that this is an assignment for which the inclusion of relevant pictorial illustrations is essential. These should be inserted electronically into your Word document rather than cut-and-pasted in. You can scan such illustrations in from print sources, save them from disk-based sources, download them from online sources (such as my Powerpoint slides) or even create them from scratch in a graphics package. Use them to help you to make points more effectively. Label each one, 'Figure 1' etc. and add a caption. Ads should, wherever possible, be dated and sourced (e.g. in which magazine(s) did the ads appear?). If you discuss commercials, submit a CD containing those discussed (keep a copy because CDs are retained). It is also advantageous to include a 'shot-by-shot summary' for each commercial in an Appendix. If you include print ads, these should be scanned and inserted as Figures within the text or in an Appendix. In the case of commercials, selected stills should also appear in the main text as Figures; these should then be explicitly referred to and discussed within the text. In the case of print ads, you are strongly advised to included cropped details from the ad in order to help you to make particular points of comparison. For guidance on capturing stills, click here.

Some suggested reading

Note: Treat with extreme caution sources labelled with this symbol!


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