Advertisement Analysis

The Scenario
You work for an advertising firm called Kairos, Inc., and your boss has just asked you to review the persuasive strategies of one advertisement produced by a competitor. The competitor has just made a very popular ad for a client, and your boss has asked you to figure out what persuasive strategies are being used in the ad that might contribute to its success.
Purpose
Your job, then, is to find an advertisement and to write an analysis of its persuasive strategies, including ethos, pathos, and logos, as if you were an employee of Kairos, Inc. so that you can compete more effectively in the fast-paced world of advertising. Every ad makes the explicit argument to buy the product advertised. However, there is always an implicit argument as well. An argument that makes the claim that “you should buy this product because it is cool and will make you cool” is a different argument than one based on the claim that “you should buy this product because it is better than the others” or “because it is equally as good and cheaper.” The appeal to coolness is usually implied rather than made explicit. Your job is to figure out how the competitor’s ad works to persuade its audience.
Avoiding Common Pitfalls with This Assignment
Your boss does not particularly care whether you like the ad or not, so if you spend too much time focusing on what you like or dislike about the ad, your report will not be a success. Therefore, spend your time looking at the aspects and details of the advertisement that you find most interesting and important to an understanding of its persuasive strategies. Keep in mind that a lot of ads are really stupid, simplistic, and not worth analyzing. Aim for an ad that has a lot going on in it, or you won’t have much to say. Remember, too, that some advertisements are much more complex than they first appear, so dig deep. What feels like your most outrageous inference may be your most illuminating.
Formatting Guidelines
This essay, when submitted for evaluation, should follow MLA Style for formatting and source documentation and should be approximately 1250 words in length. Make sure you have used one outside source as well.

Audience
Primarily, your audience is your boss and others on your team who work at Kairos, Inc. Your boss is a very demanding person who insists that you provide evidence to back up your claims. He was also trained in Classical rhetoric and loves the terms, ethos, pathos, logos, and kairos. (He even named his company after the last one.) Your fellow employees are good at what they do and have a healthy skepticism about them.

Getting Started
Here are some questions to get you thinking about the assignment: Who is depicted in the ad? What stereotypes do these people conform to or resist? What groups could they be identified with? Who is the core audience for the ad? How can you tell? How does the ad attempt to appeal to this audience? Where does the ad appear? What time of day? What kind of media? In other words, in what rhetorical context does the ad appear? Who has power, authority, or control in the ad? How can you tell?
What repeats in the ad? What categories of things can you make out of items in the ad? What elements contrast within the ad? Which of these answers are most interesting and why? Try out the “seems to be about x but could also be about y” statement suggested by the textbook. What evidence in the advertisement seems to contradict or complicate your conclusions? In other words, what counterarguments could be levied against your conclusions, and how would you refute them? Which of the rhetorical appeals (ethos, pathos, logos) does the ad employ?
These questions are merely here to guide your thinking about this assignment, so please do not write the paper by answering these questions in a list-like way. Your boss won’t like that.

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