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Advertising
Media Literacy
By Brenda Walth
Why are we studying advertising?
COLORADO INFORMATION LITERACY STANDARD 2
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The information literate student evaluates information critically and competently.
Indicators:
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1. Determines accuracy, relevance, and comprehensiveness.
2. Distinguishes among facts, point of view, and opinion.
3. Identifies inaccurate and misleading information.
4. Selects information appropriate to the problem or question at hand.
Rationale:
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The student who is information literate:
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Determines quality information by accessing for accuracy, validity, relevance,
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completeness, and impartiality.
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Uses logic and informed judgment to accept, reject, or replace information.
COLORADO READING AND WRITING STANDARDS
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Standard 1: Students read and understand a variety of materials.
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Standard 4: Students apply thinking skills to their reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing.
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Standard 5: Students read to locate, select, and make use of relevant information from a variety of media,
reference, and technological sources.
Introduction
Advertising
is bringing a product to the attention of the public, especially by paid announcements.
(Merriam-Webster definition)
Advertisements try to convince a consumer to buy merchandise. A consumer is the person
who purchases or uses a product.
Because advertisements are trying to persuade you to spend your money, they usually only
explain positive features of the item. The advertisements do not mention any reasons you
might not want to buy the item.
It is up to you to understand how the advertisement is trying to persuade you and to recognize
the reasons you might not want to buy the product.
Advertisements appear on television, radio, billboards and banners, in magazines,
newspapers, brochures, and hidden within movies and video games. T-shirts, hats,
shopping bags, bumper stickers, and buses can also contain advertisements!
Propaganda
Propaganda is a specific type of message
presentation directly aimed at
influencing the opinions of people,
rather than impartially providing
information.
We will learn about different types of
propaganda used in advertisements.
Advertising Strategies
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Appeal to authority: some person who looks like
an expert, such as a doctor, explains the product.
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Appeal to greed: get something free. This bribery
technique appears to give you a desirable extra
something, making it a seemingly better value.
Buy a burger; get fries at no extra cost.
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Appeal to patriotism: using our product is good for
our country, because it is made in the U.S.A., by
American workers.
This is our country.
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Assertion: a statement is presented as though it is a
known fact, even though it might not be true. No evidence
is given. Real facts may be omitted (left out).
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Bandwagon: persuading people to do something by
making them believe many others are doing this also. The
advertisement implies that the product is already the most
popular.
Join the crowd. You don’t want to be the only
person to miss out. Everyone else is doing it.
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Card stacking: the advertiser presents a long list of
favorable qualities, but ignores all the negative qualities.
Only part of the picture is given. The consumer may
assume that the product is more desirable than it really is.
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Emotional words: using words to make people feel strongly about
someone or something. You are more likely to spend your money if
the advertisement can create an emotional response in you.
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Glittering generalities: appealing words are applied to a product or
an idea, but the words have no real meaning.
A famous example is the slogan "Ford has a better idea!"
Better than what?
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Name-calling: making the product seem better by using unpopular
terms about the competition, such as making bad comments about
another product or person.
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Plain folks: tries to convince you that this choice is what appeals to
common people who are just like you.
For example: a cereal manufacturer shows an ordinary
family sitting down to breakfast and enjoying their cereal.
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Repetition: a jingle or word that is repeated over and over again,
thus getting it stuck in your head, so you may be more likely to buy
the product.
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Scare tactic: appeals to fear by giving the idea that something bad
will happen if you do not use the advertiser’s product or accept their
idea.
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Snob appeal: the suggestion that using the product makes you part
of an elite (special) group—cooler, more beautiful, smarter, more
like rich people, or the leader of the pack.
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Testimonial: a famous person claims the product is wonderful.
The consumer believes the famous person uses the product.
Remember that the celebrity is being paid a large
amount of money to talk about the advertiser’s
product. He/she may not even really use it.
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Transfer: associating a product with ideas, symbols, or
images that are already positive to the user.
For example, a clothing manufacturer shows people
wearing their clothes on a tropical island where a
cool breeze is blowing. You are supposed to
connect the cool breeze with the clothes.
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Weasel words: a promise is implied by using words like
"usually" or "chances are." The advertisement does
not actually guarantee anything real or meaningful.
“60% of the time, it works every time.”
Target Audience
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Definition: a specified audience or demographic group for which an
advertising message is designed.
A demographic group is part of the population that share characteristics, such as race, age,
education, location, jobs, gender, religion, etc.
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Who is the advertisement aimed at?
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Who are the advertisers trying to convince?
For instance, is the advertisement aimed at the child or at the child’s parents?
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What is the age of the target audience?
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Are they trying to sell to boys, girls, or both?
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Do you need to have a mound of money to buy the product?
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Does the advertisement appeal to people with certain interests or hobbies?
Evaluating the effectiveness of an
advertisement
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Is the advertising message clear and easy to
understand?
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Is the advertisement memorable?
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Does it appeal to the target audience?
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Does it make you want to buy the product?
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Do you know how and where to buy the product?
Activities
Presentation about advertising strategies:
 http://www.thematzats.com/propaganda/prop/
sld001.htm
Online activities for understanding advertising:
 http://pbskids.org/dontbuyit/index.html
Sources
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http://turnerlearning.com/cnn/c
oldwar/cw_prop2.html
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http://pbskids.org/dontbuyit/glo
ssary.html
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http://www.mediaawareness.ca/english/resource
s/educational/handouts/adverti
sing_marketing/food_ad_strate
gies.cfm
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http://students.usm.maine.edu/
daniel.berman/propagandatec
hniques.html
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http://www.mediaawareness.ca/english/resource
s/educational/handouts/adverti
sing_marketing/common_ad_s
trats.cfm
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http://sunset.backbone.olemiss
.edu/~egjbp/comp/adclaims.html

http://www.aamonline.org/PRO
PEL/Preview/Activities/Persua
sion/Persuasion_ResourceGui
de.pdf