Joint Ad Analysis and Webpage (Spring 2018)

Due: Monday, April 16, 5 pm, by email (the URL to me)

Length and Format: If it were in Word format it would 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 pairs or trios.  I will evaluate your group's work based on:

  1. Extent to which you demonstrate clear understanding of basic terms presented in the course
  2. The extent and creativity of your research on the images and their production
  3. The creativity and originality of your ideas
  4. 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 a larger cultural politics. That is, do NOT just consider the image in isolation or in terms of content/reception 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/websites 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 SRA 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 (media debates, political campaigns, recent high profile legal cases, etc), 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.

  • You can use a Wordpress blog page for your web format; there are basic templates available, which can be edited as you want. These are a good choice because they live at Reed and will thus be more stable.
  • You can use tumblr or some other private web interface, though the links for those end up not being stable over time.
  • For help with basic web design please arrange to meet with Tony Moreno, or assistants at Reed's MLab in the ETC
  • see these links for examples of student analyses of print ads:

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?