Media Literacy Resource Guide

Ontario Ministry of Education 1989

1. Decoding magazine advertisements.

1. the language of the advertisement
   1. What does the name of the product communicate?
   2. What is the tone of the verbal part of the advertisement?
   3. What human needs, fears, or desires are being appealed to? Concerns about health, sexuality, the family? The need to be loved? The need for security and comfort? The need for social acceptance?
   4. What claims are being made? How are they qualified? Does the advertisement use "weasel words"' irrelevant, vague or unfinished claims; testimonials; "technobabble"; flattery; or rhetorical questions? If so, what are their effects? Are there any puns or ambivalent statement used in the advertisement?
2. the visual features of the advertisement
   1. What is the general ambience or mood of the advertisement, and how is it created?
   2. What kind of type face is used in the advertisement? Discuss its impact and appropriateness. Where is the print component located? Why? How does it contribute to the advertisement?
   3. Is there a product logo? What does it communicate?
   4. What is the colour scheme of the advertisement? How does it relate to the product or to the atmosphere being established in the advertisement?
   5. How is light used in the advertisement?
   6. How are the visual items in the advertisement arranged? What items are juxtaposed? Is there a lot of white space? What is the centre of interest in the advertisement? To what part of the advertisement are the reader's eyes drawn? Is the effect pleasing or arresting?
   7. Does the product appear in the advertisement? Where is it located? Why? What is the shape of the produce or product container/ What does it communicate? How appropriate or effective it is?
   8. What is the relationship of the visual component of the advertisement to the verbal component? Does it support he content of the verbal component or does it accomplish different objectives?
3. the actual content of the advertisement
   1. What is happening in the advertisement? Does it have a plot? Are there status symbols present? What are the people in it doing? What kind of people are they? How are they dressed? What images do they project? Which of their qualities are associated with the product? Are any of the people in the advertisement stereotyped? Can you "find" yourself, your peers, or other people that you know in the advertisement?
   2. What does the setting communicate? What kind of atmosphere does it establish? How is this done?
   3. Is there a subtext? That is, is there more to the advertisement than is visible on the surface? Are the models doing anything that might suggest something beyond the surface meaning in the advertisement?
   4. Does it look as if something has just happened or is about to happen?
   5. What is communicated by the body language of the people in the advertisement? For example, how are the models positioned? What is their posture? Are there differences in the posture, relative positioning, or body language of the men and women in the advertisement?
   6. Is there anything in the advertisement that could be considered a symbol?
4. the advertisement as a whole
   1. How does the advertisement work? What are the major emotional "hooks" it uses to shape our attitudes to the product and to ensure that we remember it? How effective do you think the advertisement is?
   2. Who do you think is the intended target of the advertisement? Was the advertisement placed in the best publication for its target audience?
   3. What are the values or ideology underlying the advertisement? Do you agree or disagree with them? Why?
   4. What does the advertisement say about our society? What sociological, political, economic, or cultural attitudes are indirectly reflected in the advertisement? (An advertisement may be about blue jeans, but it could also indirectly reflect sexism, alienation, stereotyping, conformism, generational conflict, loneliness, and elitism.)