For Monday, November 3

1. Type up your analysis of whether you think patriotism works in election advertising.

2. Find another ad for your theme and post it on your blog.

3. Read and watch this slideshow essay from Slate. After you click on the link, click "here" on the page that opens.

4. Post a comment on Atara's blog or Salisha's blog. If you are Atara or Salisha, write a post that analyzes your ad in 300 words.

5. If you're not Atara or Salisha, write a post that analyzes your ad in 150 words.

Note: On Wednesday, October 29 I will have individual meetings with students instead of a regular class session.

Ad Savvy: Analyzing Ads

This site has useful analyzing techniques and information: http://www.adsavvy.org/

Questions to Consider When Analyzing Your Ads

Who is the audience for your ad? How do you know this?
What is being marketed? How can you tell?
Are there people in your ad? How would you describe them? Are they old, young, male, female, white, black, Asian-American, Latino? Why were these people chosen?
What color schemes are used in the ad? What effect does this produce?
Are there any props? How are they used?
Where is the ad taking place? Why was this location(s) chosen?
What kind of music is used? Are there any other sound effects? What kind of tone do they produce?
Is there a voice over in your ad? What kind of voice is used? Why effect does it produce?
Is there any text in your ad? What does the text do?
What kind of emotion does your ad want you to feel? How can you tell this?
Does your ad make any promises? How does it convey these promises?
Are there characters in the ad the audience is meant to identify with? How can you tell this?

Patriotic Ads: What do they do?

McCain's Patriotism





Obama's Patriotism

Assignments for Monday, October 27

1. Type up your analysis of whether you think fear is a legitimate tactic in advertising campaigns, particularly election ads.

2. Find another ad for your theme and post it on your blog.

3. Read this article from the LA Times blog and read the first page of comments that follow.

4. Post a comment on Jonathan's blog or Neal's blog. If you are Jonathan or Neal, write a post that analyzes your ad in 300 words.

5. If you're not Jonathan or Neal, write a post that analyzes your ad in 150 words.

Election Ads that Invoke Fear

Click here for an ad in Spanish that is trying to make viewers scared.

More Fear Ads from the Left and Right: Click here.

Two Links That We'll Be Looking At in Class on Wednesday

The Living Room Candidate has Election Ads from the start of television advertisements. Find it here. We'll especially be looking at the "Fear" Ads under "Type of Commercials."

Also this feature from the NY Times called "The Ad Wars" has interesting statistics and information

See you tomorrow!