As discussed in class, please bring in your revised draft of the ad analysis to class today, 10/11. I am postponing the in-class essay.
Remember: You must be able to identify, in your own work, the three components of a strong thesis (which are on the form I gave you with examples).
- OBSERVATION (or What?): Identify specific aspects of the ad, and find precise language to describe them.
- COMPLICATION (or How?): How are these elements working? What associations, feelings, or anxieties do they provoke or soothe or both, in the current social context?
- SIGNIFICANCE (or Why or So What?): Remember, saying “this will sell a product to everyone” is not an argument. Your O and C should point towards a specific audience. Who is likely to be provoked or soothed or both by the complications you described? Significance, in a thesis, is the moment in the argument where you pivot to the world outside the ad: This is how this ad is targeting its audience.
In a literary critical argument, your significance would answer the question, “Why does this matter in the world outside this novel?” In the ad analysis, your significance is also answering the question “Why does this ad do these things?” You will not answer that question unless you argue that the ad is targeting a specific audience (age, gender, type of views, general demographic position…).
P.S. Here is that helpful page on Ad Analysis from Writing Commons.