DURATION: 3 hours

KEY TOPICS

• Advertising and sponsorship – location, messages and audience
• Evaluating claims and appeals in advertising
• Examining the design and production of advertisements
• Product placement in programmes

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After completing this unit, teachers will be able to:

• Analyze the advertising process as a means of communicating information
• Explore concept development in advertising, including technical and creative strategies
• Deconstruct the key ingredients that go into an advertisement and its emotional appeal
• Assess the impact of advertising messages on specific target audiences
• Explain how the concept of ‘active’ audiences applies to advertising, or more specifically, how audiences negotiate meaning (i.e. how we explain the success of some advertisements and not others)
• Identify the latest trends in advertising
• Identify product placements in programmes as indirect advertising (mixing editorial and commercial content)

PEDAGOGICAL APPROACHES and ACTIVITIES

• Take an imaginary tour of your school/campus and neighbourhood. Identify the kinds of advertisements, public service announcements (PSAs), promotions or sponsorships that exist there. Provide a brief description of each advertising/PSA/sponsorship example. Describe the message and image created through each example and assess their effectiveness in conveying necessary information. Identify the source for each example (i.e. who created it or who benefits/profits from it)
  • Explain why businesses and institutions might choose to have their names, products or logos located here. Explain in what ways these sponsorships/promotions differ from ‘traditional’ advertising
• Communities often consider whether or not to sell naming rights to areas, venues or buildings. Discuss the benefits and liabilities of such advertising strategies for the advertiser, the community and the individual
• Survey a collection of magazines, view ads on television and visit a number of websites for major companies. Describe the advertising strategies used in current examples. Select a number of ads to examine closely. Describe the ‘personality’ of the product featured in each ad and identify the emotions the advertiser is trying to evoke. What promises or solutions does the ad or PSA offer? How realistic are these? What views of happiness or success are being communicated?
  • Identify the information, messages and values conveyed in each ad. Discuss the need for a clear distinction between editorial and advertising content. Also, are any specific claims being made in these ads? What facts are presented to support these claims? Is any of the information misleading or unclear? Based on your analysis, what recommendations would you make to the audience for this ad? In other words, would you accept the information being presented in this ad? Why or why not? Would you suggest any changes to make the information or message more accurate
    or complete? Explain with examples
• Select a print ad to examine closely. This exercise requires you to consider the design elements used in the ad, the information and message being conveyed, and the audience being targeted. How do the design elements (composition, angle, light, colour, choice of words, etc.) support the message and information being conveyed? In other words, how does form reinforce content?
• Product placement means placing a commercial product prominently in a particular radio or television programme or a book, and also increasingly on the Internet, without identifying it as an advertisement, to satisfy the product manufacturer who has sponsored the programme (i.e. paid for it entirely or met some of the associated costs). Some regulators permit product placement on the condition that viewers are clearly informed of the product placement at the start and end of the programme. Select examples of product placement: Are they identified as such? If regulations relating to product placement exist in your country, what actions can citizens take? What is the message conveyed about the product because of the context? What the messages are conveyed through the product itself as well as the context for it? Would a different context or placement change the image of the product and its message?
  • Make a list of the players involved in the advertising industry. This should involve individuals and institutions/organizations. Describe their respective roles. Consider any audiovisual advertising. Do you think the role of each of the key players you listed is explicitly reflected in the ad? How do you think your knowledge of those involved in the creation and dissemination of this ad helps you to better interact with it or to assess its usefulness in providing the information you need? (Note: In this regard, the documentary film series The Persuaders may be of interest – see a description of this programme in the list of references at the end of this module.)