Each student is to choose a television commercial for analysis. The student needs to find the commercial on YouTube. Commercial must be thirty seconds long and advertising a nationally recognized product.) Students will hand in a four-page analysis and video. On the first two pages of the report list all the signs and codes used in the commercial. In a second column list the complementary connotations. Your goal in the second two pages is building an argument for deeper or latent system of meaning as discovered in the relationship of signs and codes. You should place the signs and codes in the context of the time (historical era) in which the commercial airs. Why are these codes and signs persuasive in this historical context? Your paper will be stronger if you can cite specific information from part 1 as evidence to build an argument for a specific meaning. Can you relate this sign system to a larger archetypal sign system, myth or story. • Incorporate Larson′s cultural narratives in your analysis. • Be sure to include brand name in analysis. You should send me via email a YouTube citation for the commercial. • Thoroughness in the recognition and use of all the main codes • Depth and completeness of your perceptions • Evidence for claims • Well written, beware sexist language. • Beware of unrealistic connotations but be creative. • Incorporation of Larson on myth •
