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Joint Print
Ad Analysis and Webpage (Spring 2011)
Due:Friday,
April 15, 5 pm
Length and Format:In Word format it should be 3-5 pages, double-spaced, 1 inch margins all around, 12 point fonts. The final product should be a webpage, linked to the Sexism and Racism in Advertising website. Please spellcheck. They should be well-organized analyses of the sex and/or gender and/or sexuality implications of a set of advertising images.
Evaluation: This is a less formal writing assignment than the two main papers, so you have some leeway in crafting a commentary on your chosen ad(s). But unlike other assignments, this one will be a joint project, completed in chosen or assigned pairs or trios. I will evaluate your group's work based on:
-
Extent to which you demonstrate clear understanding of basic terms presented in the course
- The extent and creativity of your research on the images and their production
- The creativity and originality of your ideas
- The clarity of your organization and writing
You can take any number
of angles on this assignment, but the main idea is to consider these images
in terms of what di Leonardo and Lancaster referred to our first week
as "robust social constructionism". That is, do NOT just consider
the image in isolation or in terms of content alone. Rather, consider the implications of its structural/compositional
qualities in relation to larger social and political economic contexts.
First, choose your image(s) and your approach. You may use images
available on the Sexism and Racism in Advertising website, collect your own, or download
them from another source.
Preserve as much of the citation information as you can (ie., where
was it printed? what year? what other forums/magazines did this image
appear in?). Hand in clean copies of all images (in digital or paper form)
with your analysis. All new images will be added to the MIA website.
As for your analytic
approach, you could:
- focus on one ad
image, but consider its composition, messages, etc in relation to other
similar ones
- consider a set
of similarly patterned images on a theme, or from a single advertising
campaign
Then, everyone
should historicize and contextualize their ad image(s) in some way.
That is, consider:
-
which firms (manufacturers, ad agencies, magazine/media owners) were instrumental in creating and distributing the images, and
- how that product
has historically been created and marketed, or
- what audiences
and/or forums have this image or product historically targeted? or
- consider the historical
happenings that coincided with the campaign, or
- the history of
the companies involved.
- To do this, see the Anthro 344 Library Resource Guide for online resources, databases
and more.
- Also
for inspiration see Bibliography on Gender and
Advertising.
- Also for inspiration see Jean Killbourne's "Killing Us Softly" film series, or Sut Jhally's "Gender Codes" film, all in Reed Library.
The final product will be a webpage to be displayed for broader audiences on the Sexism and Racism in Advertising website. Thus think creatively about design and the use of links.
- For help with basic web design please arrange to meet with Perry Eising at Reed's MLab.
- see this
links for examples of student analyses of print ads:
Student
Web Analyses of Advertising's Social Impacts
Lewis and Clark College's Sociology and Anthropology Dept. runs a course
on American Advertising and the Science of Signs. Students have produced
websites including analyses of Women's Sports Ads, Absolut
Vodka, Ethnic others, and Children as Signifiers. One model
for responding critically to damaging ad messages.
Tips on Structural
Assessments of Commercial Images:
Think about images as a particular kind of frame that works to guide or
constrain your interpretation of its meanings. Given the conditions of
the contemporary advertising industry, it is safe to assume that in commercial
images nearly all aspects of form are consciously contrived to achieve
a certain interpretive goal.
To consider how the frame is constructed, look for:
- camera angle: perspective
of the viewer or voyeur
- depth
- types of subjects
- background
- lighting/color
- body language of
subjects: gaze, head angle, relative size, hand gestures
clothing of subjects
- relat. btw. subjects
and material things
- narrative content:
what story is being told or referred to? How do you know?
- What is the commodity
being sold?
- What is the target
audience?
- what is framed
out of the image?
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