How to Write an Advertisement Analysis Essay

Do you know how to analyze an advertisement and get those coveted grades? What are the essential components of an advertisement analysis essay? Modern-age advertisements are not as simple as they may appear compared to the past.

A lot goes into creating an effective advertisement. Advertisements use different tools of persuasion to evoke a response in the target audience.

Analyzing an ad requires you to break down and scrutinize the text and content of an advertisement. It studies how the chosen method of communication informs, persuades, or entertains the audience.

When given such an essay, you should identify the perspective and writing style the advertisement is using.

It involves reviewing the methods of persuasion found in the words and phrases used in the advertisement and how effective they are to readers.

Analyzing the Ad

The first step in this process is to read and analyze the content of the advertisement.

As you read, take note of any text or phrases or any other valuable information that can ease the process of analyzing the advertisement.

The second step is to identify the strategies used in the advertisement.

Alongside this information, it will be vital to identify who the target audience is, the purpose of the advertisement, and the context within which the central message of the ad is set.

With this in mind, the process of identifying the styles and strategies used in an advertisement will be smoother.

It also involves an examination of the techniques used in an advertisement to persuade the audience concerning a particular product.

These stylistic choices may vary according to the medium used to relay the message.

Rhetorical Analysis of An Advertisement

Rhetoric refers to the art of persuasive speaking or writing. A rhetorical analysis is, therefore, an examination of the styles used in an advertisement analysis essay.

There are three main types of rhetorical strategies used in advertisements. These techniques are incorporated into the text of an advertisement, focused on convincing the target audience about something in connection to the product.

1.    Ethos

This refers to moral competence, expertise, and knowledge. This strategy appeals to ethics.

For an ad to be persuasive, the target audience must believe that the speaker is someone to whom they are willing to listen. Is the advertiser a credible source of the information they are providing?

This credibility is context-driven. For instance, a medical doctor speaking about medical health will be respected when speaking on the subject.

However, should the doctor try to use their expertise in a football match, they will most likely fail.

Advertisements may use the reputation of a respected authority figure of the involved field to make the ad more legitimate.

Reputation may not be all that is involved here. How the message is relayed also goes a long way into making an advertisement appear reliable.

A credible source will have to communicate succinctly, accurately, and persuasively.

2.    Logos

This is the root of the word logic. The target audience is more likely to respond to an argument that has a logical element to it.

The word of power here is “because.” If you provide your readers with a reason, they are more likely to respond the way you want them to.

3.    Pathos

Pathos, the last of the three techniques, refers to emotions. Words can be used to solicit different emotions in those who read them.

Emotive words are a sure way of manipulating a reader into an emotional state.

For instance, the use of words like “damage,” “harm,” catastrophe,” “responsibility,” I would be in a reasonably influential position to persuade you to buy my eco-friendly products.

Advertisements use this to provoke a particular emotion in their target audience. This emotion, in turn, causes the audience to act in a predicted manner and buy a particular product.

Advertisements use at least one or a combination of these techniques to persuade their potential customers into action.

As an advertisement analyst, you should be assertive about the choice of words in an advertisement.

It may seem so, but the words are not picked at random. They are craftily selected and arranged to bring an advertisement to the desired goal. There is a cause-and-effect element to advertisements.

Advertisement Analysis Essay Outline

To write an outstanding advertisement analysis essay, you will need to know how to outline your essay. This will provide a framework within which you will layout the main points of your objective analysis.

1.    Introduction

You could begin your advertisement analysis essay with a summary of the passage or information you are analyzing. This will demonstrate your understanding of the crux of the advertisement.

Provide an objective account of the ad features or how it looks. This should be an observation; no explanation is needed at this point.

Also, you could mention the methods and styles of persuasion used and their corresponding effect.

Formulate your view of the strategies used in a thesis statement. This usually comes at the end of your introductory paragraph

2.    Body

After providing the reader with your perspective, you can change your focus to analyzing the advertisement.

This section of an advertisement analysis essay will take most of the weight of your essay. Explain the strategies used to inform entertain or persuade the reader.

It is not enough to merely state the effect of the advertisement. A good essay will demonstrate how the advertisement causes a particular outcome.

For instance, if the advertisement uses emotive language, provide evidence of the same by quoting the section.

Organize different paragraphs to elucidate on the different strategies used in the ad for your advertisement analysis essay.

Identification of the strategies used should be followed by information about; how the strategy works, how it is used in the advertisement, why this strategy was chosen for the audience, and what response the strategy caused in the targeted audience.

3.    Conclusion

In this section, summarize what you elaborated on in the body. You may describe how the use of certain words or phrases changed the position of the audience and how it caused them to act.

Elaborate on whether the advertisement was able to attain its goal of either informing, entertaining, or persuading the intended audience.

Conclusion

With a good grasp of the above information, you will have all you need to analyze an advertisement and write a well-informed essay objectively.

Ensure your advertisement analysis essay takes a smooth flow as you dissect the components of an advertisement.

It may be essential to know that for each strategy you identify, an example should be provided.

As you explain the strategies, try to remain within the main points of the advertisement. Avoid straying too far from the thesis.

Having all this at the forefront of your mind, you should be more comfortable writing an advertisement analysis essay.

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