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ENG 1001-03 Home Page Essay 1

ESSAY 1: ADVERTISEMENT ANALYSIS

In preparing to write this essay, examine the online advertisements below. You'll choose one of them to be the topic of your essay:

Your writing tasks for this essay are as follows:

Your purpose in writing this essay is to convince your reader that you have correctly identified the targeted consumers (audience) and central message. You can assume your reader has seen the advertisement, but has not examined it closely or considered the issue of audience.
 

1. Identify the Targeted Consumers (Audience) and Central Message

Effective advertisements are targeted. That is, the advertisers have some specific segment of the population in mind to whom they wish to sell the product being advertised, and it's that group of consumers for whom they design the ad―the text, visual components, audio effects, links, and so forth. Specifically, the advertisers are attempting to communicate through the ad a central message about their product that will prompt the target market to buy the product. Carefully examining the details in an advertisement should allow a viewer to make an informed identification of the targeted consumers and of the central message the advertisement conveys to that audience.

Your first writing task, then, is to make an informed identification of the targeted consumers (or audience) and the ad's central message and to write a one-sentence thesis statement that summarizes that identification.
 

2. Write a Short Description of the Advertisement

Your description should be no more than one full paragraph long. In your description, you should include enough details from the advertisement to remind your reader of the important features of the ad. Note that you are not required to include every detail.
 

3. Support your Identification of the Audience and Message with a Careful Analysis of the Advertisement

Remember that to analyze means to break something down into its parts. With that definition in mind, spend the remainder of the body of your essay examining features of the advertisement that support your identification of the targeted consumers and message. In other words, provide evidence for your thesis statement.

Your job here is not to describe the whole ad again, but to examine specific features of the advertisement and to explain how those features support your thesis statement. For instance, if you were analyzing a Hardee's ad that you believe targets young people (especially males) with the message that eating food from Hardee's is an inexpensive means of achieving the hedonistic lifestyle they desire, you might examine the low price of a Hardee's meal by noting specific prices and explaining how such prices would be important to young people. You might also examine the ad's use of engaging and suggestive video and audio components, the ad's interactivity, and the photos of the young people (both male and female) in the advertisement.

Plan on at least four to six paragraphs of analysis and explanation. This section is the real "meat" or substance of your essay.
 

Other Considerations

Be sure to include an effective introduction and conclusion and to employ correct and effective sentence structure, style, grammar, and mechanics. For this essay, you should use a formal style: avoid first-person pronouns, second-person pronouns, and slang.

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