CI5472 Teaching Film, Television, and Media
Module 6: Studying Advertising
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Another perspective for analyzing advertising is to consider it
as propaganda for developing positive attitudes towards consumerism.
Ads can then be perceived as more than just promoting products;
they are also promoting attitudes, values, and ideologies. From
this perspective, advertising itself functions to indoctrinate audiences
to believe in consumer products as providing them happiness, status,
and success. For example, Exxon Oil may have an ad that portrays
the value of education or even the environment. These ads are not
designed to directly sell oil. Rather, they are selling the larger
image of Exxon as a corporation that “cares” about education
or the environment—despite the fact that oil is the leading
cause of air pollution and global warming. These public relations
ads qualify as propaganda in that they distort facts in order to
promote their own ideological perspectives and agendas, in the case
of Exxon Oil—often to resist efforts to curtail oil exploration
or production. However, as in any critical
analysis of propaganda, students could ask, who does advertising
really benefit—leading them to recognize that it is the producers,
not the audiences, who are benefiting. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A WebQuest for Truth [propaganda analysis] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
To create your own ad analysis, ask students to go to adflip.com for ads and analyze the different components listed above. For examples of ad analysis, see the following sites: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Big Lie: The Truth about Advertising [lots of other components] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ad Analyses: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Advertising as Propaganda: Public Relations Ads |
