Assignment AFC 2:

Here is the entire ad. It's a 1990 British advertisement for police recruits. One type of place I know it appeared was in the London subway.

Study the picture and text and answer the questions below. Bring your answers with you to class.

1. What did you think the picture was about when you first looked at it?
2. How might your understanding of what is going on in the picture have been influenced by your gender, race, class, age, or nationality? or by paradigms you bring to your viewing of it?
3. How might people different from you interpret the ad? How might the stereotypes people use be part of their cultural paradigms.
4. Why do the ad's developers think some viewers' reaction might be a "good illustration of why we are looking for more recruits from ethnic minorities?"
5. How does the ad illustrate the importance of audience paradigm to understanding the way ads communicate. Relate your answer to media literacy principle 3, Audiences negotiate meaning in media.

Return to Ads as forms of communication.