Analysis: Analyzing Audiences And Assumptions

By Author: Amandda
Total Articles: 59
Comment this article

1. What is the intended audience-- age? sex? ethnic background? religion? political affiliation? advertisers? elites? suppliers? distributors?
2. Did the ad appear in a time or place likely to reach the intended audience?
3. How does the ad mirror the intended audience? Does the ad imply special knowledge about wants and needs of this audience?

Ad Content (not all points apply to PSAs)
1. What is the central claim in the ad? Is this claim believable?
2. What evidence is marshaled in support of the claim? example? lay testimony? statistics? figurative analogy? literal analogy? expert testimony? Does the explicit evidence in the ad warrant the claim? What associations are Tag Heuer Replica used to prompt inferences about the sponsor or product? What are some of these possible inferences? Are they legitimate?
3. Does the ad position the product (or service, idea, candidate) in relation to others? If so, how?
4. What specific strategies are used to personalize the product (service, idea, candidate)? to adapt the message to the ...
... audience?
5. Does the visual content of the ad support, underscore, or echo the verbal content? If not, what is the relationship between the visual and the verbal? Is it a productive relationship?
6. Is the ad trying to reach a new audience (persuade them to buy or support), or is it trying to reinforce belief in those who already own the product or support the candidate?
7. Is anyone likely to be offended by this ad? If so, on what grounds? Does the ad offend publicly accepted standards of decency or taste? If so, why was it aired or printed?
8. How does the ad create recognition, differentiation, association, participation, and repetition?

Assumptions (values presumed in the ad)
1. What assumptions about society-- about progress, consumption, political participation, racial harmony, multigenerational families, etc.-- are embedded in the ad?
2. What assumptions about the role appropriate to various types of persons older persons, children, women, men, African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans-- inhere in the ad?
3. What assumptions about work or occupation about blue-collar workers, professionals, professors, doctors, lawyers, working women as a class-- are in the ad?
4. What assumptions about societal structures inhere in the ad?

a. Households: what constitutes the normal family according to the ad? How many people? How many children? number of boys? girls? significant others? Mrs. Olsen? milkman? Tony the Tiger? What is their relationship to other characters in the ad? Who gives advice? Who takes advice? Who extends approval? disapproval? What are the norms for appropriate behavior for different characters in the ad? What types of behavior can be initiated by some characters and not by others?
b. Medical establishment: Is the doctor ever anything other than an authority? Are health care and healing ever separate from consumption of a product? When the physician is female, will she be found in different Tag Heuer Carrera Replica circumstances and in different relationships than when the physician is male? Is the female doctor ever seen treating a male patient?
c. Religious establishment: If there is a rabbi, priest, or minister, what kind of a role does he or she play? How are religious symbols (or roles) used (nuns, monks, altar, candles, icon, and so forth)?
5. What assumptions are made about bodily processes-- aging, euphemistic terms for parts of the body, body functions that are not identified?
6. What types of communication are legitimized in ads? What sorts of problems are revealed or concealed from other characters in ads? Are there things concealed from adults by children or from children by adults? Is duplicity sanctioned (for example, any pretext that a product made from a mix is really homemade)? Is one generation played off against another (grandma tells mother that if she bought the wrong thing, it is granddaughter Susie's fault)? Does the product serve as a substitute for an expression of affection or some other form of communication? Does the ad advocate a particular type of communication-- for example, preference for the telephone or writing a letter? If so, what are the special attributes of the preferred communication that are demonstrated in the ad? 7. How are politicians treated in nonpolitical ads?