Suggestions: How to Analyze
Ads ....
Classroom teaching aid, pro bono publico, from Persuasion Analysis
| © 2007 by Hugh Rank | More at http://webserve.govst/edu/pa
Composition
is the putting-together process. Analysis is the taking-apart
process. TV commercials are often the best compositions of our era:
skillfully created combinations of purposeful words and images, designed
to persuade.
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.
Analysis takes time. Be patient and systematic. It takes a long time to analyze a "little" ad, as we unpack all of the different parts. We see these things spontaneously, all at once, but we must analyze them sequentially, one at a time.
Distance yourself: understand an ad is a unit of persuasion, with a specific audience in mind, designed to get attention in the clutter of the marketplace, and to get a response (immediate or delayed, directly or indirectly).
Anticipate incoming information. Have some way to sort,
some place to store. If you know common patterns of persuasion, you can pick
up cues from bits and fragments, recognize the situation, know the probable
options, infer the rest, and even note the omissions. Some persuaders use these
techniques (and some observers analyze them) consciously and systematically;
others, intuitively and haphazardly. Seek to understand principles and to apply
them to specific examples.
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.
Categorize, but don't pigeonhole. Anything can be put
into many categories at the same time, depending upon the observer's interests.
Clusters and mixes are common. For example, a "pretty face" may be classified
as an attention-getter, and a confidence-builder, and also in
other ways (sex appeal, intimacy, celebrity) simultaneously.
Practice. Analysis is a skill which needs to be practiced. Make it a game at home. Teach your parents, siblings, and friends. Use print ads from magazines (make notes, circle key words). Videotape ads. Replay several times: in class, divide up, look for different aspects.
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More Suggestions:
How to Analyze Ads .... Ads need not be rational to be effective. For example, many attention-getting tactics, association techniques, simple repetition, and "feel good" ads, are not logical or rational, but they are frequently used, frequently effective. 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. Persuasion is a mutual transaction: persuaders are benefit-promisers, but we are benefit-seekers. All people seek to get the "good" (Acquisition); to keep the "good" (Protection); to avoid the "bad" (Prevention); and to get rid of the "bad" (Relief). Most ads simply try to identify these human desires with a particular product. Most ads involve simple trade-offs and mutual benefits: consumers get a pleasure, producers get a profit. Recognize how you are involved in the transaction. 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. Use the 1-2-3-4-5 pattern of "the pitch" to aid your memory and to organize your analysis. Always look for the full sequence (including "urgency" and a specific "response"). Do the easy stuff first. "Feel good" ads and corporate image-building ads often need a wider context to make sense. Note any omissions, what has been assumed or implied. Recognize "soft-sell" ads (for consumer products). Except for the pre-Christmas advertising blitz, most ads directed at kids are usually "feel good" ads, simply getting you to notice them, to enjoy them, and to associate the product with people you admire (celebrities, authorities), or with friendly characters you can relate to, or with kids you'd like as friends. Very few ads for standard products (cola, candy, clothes, cosmetics) are "hard sell" ads --- direct, blunt and obvious sales pitches with an urgency appeal. Soft sell ads are usually harder to analyze: less is explicitly said, more is implied. Corporate image-building ads and advocacy ads are one-sided presentations which always need special attention: these ads are not related to a consumer product, but are used to influence public opinion about a policy (regulations, taxes). Search online to see what issues may be involved, what problems omitted, or what outside observers have reported. Some ads blur the borderlines: for example, a
30-second spot may look like a news report or a short program, with
only one or two quick glimpses of the product (or its logo) in the background.
Some kids think that the only part that's "really an ad"
within a 30-second spot is the few seconds that a product's name is
actually seen. But, the whole "feel good" context is
an ad. |
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Some good advice from: New Mexico Media Literacy Project © 2001 How to Deconstruct a
Media Example Hugh Rank comments: I agree that discussions of "lifestyle," "values," and "healthy / unhealthy" messages are very important. However, my own limited purpose, in this Persuasion Analysis website, has been to focus on a much more detailed treatment of the same techniques and omissions used by all persuaders, good guys and bad guys! Generally, I have not dealt with controversial ethical issues (involved in discussions of "lifestyle," "values," and "unhealthy" messages). Except for a few important issues, such as intrinsically harmful products (cigarettes), intrinsically vulnerable audiences (pre-schoolers), and intrinsically inappropriate venues (school classrooms, and their captive audiences) for commercials, I can tolerate (and often enjoy) the great diversity of persuaders in our society competing for our time and our money. Instead of the term "deconstruction," I use the term "analysis" for the "taking apart" process (and use "composition" for the "putting together" process); and the terms explicit and implicit meaning, instead of text and subtext. (In other words, I "analyze implications" instead of "deconstruct subtexts." For more, see:Persuasion Analysis | © 2007 by Hugh Rank | More at http://webserve.govst/edu/pa |