Sources (at least five, see list below)
1. You are to use one PRINT advertisement or one PRINT advertisement campaign: for example, one
ad for a Dove product or multiple ads from the Dove Real Beauty Ad campaign. Your ad or ads
must be in print form (no web ads and no video ads) and must be from a magazine or magazines.
2. web information about the product and product company from the product/company website,
including information about the product, its price, and the company image
3. web information about target demographic for the magazine or magazines in which you located
your particular ad or ads (search for “mediakit”+the name of magazine)
4. research (from web and/or scholarly sources) about consumer trends related to the product (for
example, the amount of money spent per year by consumers on the product or product category,
i.e., “XX is a $16 billion per year industry” or “on average, consumers spend $120/yr on XX,” or…
5. References to both the Berger and Bourdieu texts and any other pertinent source (see Bb for more
examples)

Format: Use MLA documentation standards (for a sample MLA-format paper, please see the sample
paper in the “MLA Citation” content area of the course Bb).
Double space throughout (including work cited section)·
Times New Roman 12-point font·
One-inch margins all around·

Audience: Your intended audience for this assignment is a professional scholarly reader. Your tone
should likewise be scholarly and professional. Avoid, as always, pretentious overwriting, but do not use
slang unless the slang is necessary to the content.

Detailed Description: When you are asked to do a “rhetorical analysis” of a text, you are being asked to
use your critical reading skills to deconstruct the whole of the text into its constituent parts so that you
can determine its argument, its stance. To do so, you must identify the intended audience of the text, the
purpose of the text, and the author of the text. More importantly, you must use that information to figure
out why the text is as it is, what the form or content of the text has to do with its purpose, and lastly,
whether or not the form or content successfully fulfills the intended purpose of the text.
For this rhetorical analysis assignment, I am asking you to write about how advertisement works and to
analyze a text – in this case, an advertisement – and to write about its rhetorical stance, its argument.
This may, on the surface, seem really quite simple. We know the purpose of the advertisement, of all
advertisement: to sell. Far more challenging (and interesting) is 1) figuring out to whom the
advertisement sells, 2) what (other than the product) it is actually selling, and 3) why the advertisement
works.
For this assignment, you get to pick the primary text. It is important that you choose your text carefully.
Choose an advertisement or advertisement campaign that you feel strongly about and that you feel you
can really analyze. You should think twice before picking an ad for something you really want or
something you frequently purchase for yourself. Those are the ads that work on you and it may be more
difficult (although certainly worthwhile) to gain enough distance and objectivity to really read the ad
clearly.

Steps to begin your analysis:
1. Choose an advertisement. The only limitation is that your ad MUST be a PRINT ad or ads from a
MAGAZINE or magazines.
2. Research to determine the following about the ad(s):
a. Who is the author/creator (company/corporation) of the ad? What image does the product
and product company project to its audience? How does it want to be seen?
b. To whom is the ad or ad campaign addressed? Who is the intended audience?
i. Where did you find the ad(s)?
ii. What can you tell me about where you found the ad? Are the target demographics
for the particular ad or campaign and for magazine(s) in which you found the ad the
same? Who is being targeted? Hint: where you find your ad may actually tell you an
awful lot about who the intended audience is (Did you find the ad in Vanity Fair or in
Popular Mechanics? In Cosmo or in Maxim? Where you found the ad is key.)
iii. USE THE RA WORKSHEETS TO GUIDE YOU. That’s what they are for.
3. Annotate the ad(s):
a. Write about the elements of the ad(s) directly on the advertisement(s). Remember,
everything in an ad has a purpose. It’s your job to figure out what that purpose is.
i. How much text appears in the ad? Why?
ii. What kind of font is being used for that text? Why?
iii. What colors are being used? Why?
iv. What objects are pictured in the ad? Why?
v. What kinds of people are (or type of person is) pictured in the ad? Why?
4. How does your ad work to sell? What is the ad actually selling? Use advertising theory (Berger,
Bourdieu, etc.) to help you answer these questions.
5. Research the consumer demand for the product (or product category). What is the economic
impact of the product? Can the economic impact of the product (or product category) tell you
anything about the psychological importance of the product (or product category)? What, in other
words, is the significance of the product to its consumers (for example, “The makeup industry is a
multibillion dollar industry because women have been taught to believe that beauty is power…”)
6. Write your thesis statement. Remember that an effective ad is never just about the product. It’s
about the buyer. Keep your thesis clear, concise, and substantial.
7. Decide how you are going to prove your thesis. What evidence will you use? Research the
product and the company that produces the product. Research the magazine in which the ad or
ads are placed. How do the ad’s elements (text and image) create the ad’s argument? How will you
order your evidence? In other words, outline your paper.
8. Write your research paper.