For this response paper assignment, you will choose a single advertisement, a set of clearly related advertisements, or an entire advertising campaign on which to do a thorough analysis/close reading of marketing strategies. This analysis must go beyond the obvious so you should use the course readings as well as your own careful investigation to help your readers understand something about the marketing strategies they might have otherwise missed. The argument of your essay should also be carefully controlled by a single, over-arching theme. As an exercise in close reading, you should, as pre-writing, consider every feature of the advertising with scrupulous attention: imagery, language, implicit and explicit appeals, sensory information, etc. Consider these choices in terms of their meanings and effects, intended or otherwise. Be sure to identify the major consumer demographic/s the advertising targets. As an exercise in good writing, you should organize the best of these observations into a coherent essay whose thesis clearly identifies how your particular essay will approach its subject. The paper must be focused around a specific, arguable interpretation and this interpretation must be represented in a clearly identifiable thesis statement early in the essay. It might help to ask yourself: “If the entire class was writing a paper on this particular ad/campaign, how would my piece stand out as especially interesting and different? What would be its added value?” Another question you might find helpful: “If I was writing a book on this ad/campaign, what specific subject would this single chapter be on?” Textual Support: in addition to specific references to the ad/s, it is expected that you will make some use of our course reading, and that you will use at least one scholarly journal article that you find (i.e., from academic journals such as Journal of Consumer Psychology or Journal of Consumer Behavior, etc.). APA or MLA in-text citations and References list is required.
