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Checklist for analyzing print advertisements
from Arthur Asa Berger, Seeing is Believing: An Introduction
to Visual Communication, 2nd ed. (Mountain View, CA: Mayfield
Publishing Co., 1998), p. 65.
There is a distinction between commercials, which are broadcast
on television, radio, and other electronic media, and advertisements,
which are found in the various print media, such as magazines, newspapers,
billboards, and posters. (On the Internet, the many static advertisements
are, I would suggest, best seen as electronically disseminated print
advertisements.) The following checklist focuses on print advertisements:
Chapter 5 provides a checklist for analyzing television commercials.
The Mood
- What is the general ambiance of the advertisement–the mood
that is created, the feelings it stimulates?
The Design
- What is the basic design of the advertisement? Does
it use axial balance, or are the fundamental units arranged in
an asymmetrical manner?
- What relationship exists between the pictorial aspects of the
advertisement and the copy, or written material?
- How is spatiality used in the advertisement? Is there lots
of white (blank) space, or is the advertisement crowded – full
of written and graphic material?
- Is there a photograph used in the advertisement? If so, what
kind of shot is it? What angle is it taken from? What is the lighting
like? How is color used?
The Context and Content
- If there are figures in the advertisement (people,
animals), what are they like? Consider factors (to the extent
that you can) such as facial expressions, hairstyles and hair
color, body shape and body language, clothes, age, sex, race,
ethnicity, education, occupation, relationships, and so on.
- What does the background of the figures suggest? Where is the
action taking place, and how does the background relate to this
action?
- What is gong on in the advertisement, and what significance
does this action have? Assuming that the advertisement represents
part of a narrative, what can we conclude about what has let to
this particular moment in time? That is, what is the plot? Signs
and Symbols
- What symbols and signs appear in the advertisement? What role
do they plan in stimulating positive feelings about or desire
for the produce or service being advertised? Language and Typefaces
- . How is language used in the advertisement? What linguistic
devices provide information or generate some hoped for emotional
response? Does the advertisement use metaphor? Metonomy? Repetition?
Alliteration? Comparison and contrast? Sexual innuendo? Definitions?
- What typefaces are used, and what messages do these typefaces
convey?
Themes
- What are the basic themes in the advertisement?
What is the advertisement about? (For example, the plot may involve
a man and a woman drinking, and the theme may be jealousy.)
- What product or service is being advertised? What role does
it play in American society and culture?
- What political, economic, social and cultural attitudes are
reflected in the advertisement–such as alienation, sexism, conformity,
anxiety, stereotyped thinking, generational conflict, obsession,
elitism, loneliness, and so on?
- What information do you need to make sense of the advertisement?
Does it allude to certain beliefs? Is it a reflection of a certain
lifestyle? Does it assume information and knowledge on the part
of the person looking at the advertisement?
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