Rhetoric for Beginners: Using Advertisements to Introduce Rhetoric
Published on Nov 25, 2015
AP Lang and Comp presentation on rhetorical appeals in an advertisement.
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PRESENTATION OUTLINE
Rhetoric for Beginners:
Using Advertisements to Introduce Rhetoric
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Every ad is a mini-essay, an argument crafted to appeal to a
particular audience. DIDLS – diction, images, details, language
and sentence structure – will be used as a strategy for analysis.
Print and television ads will be used to teach stylistic devices and
techniques.
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How to Read an Advertisement
First, look closely at all of the details of your assigned advertisement.
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This includes examining the
foreground and the background, the type of people in the ad (if any), the prominent objects or images, the
kinds of colors used, and the various words or phrases
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You should think about both the denotative and
connotative meaning of all of these details.
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You must engage intellectually with the material at hand and
discover the ways in which the ads both draw upon and promote the popular mythologies and ideologies in
American culture.
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Then use your detailed observations to answer the following discussion questions:
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Who is the audience for the advertisement? How can you tell? What assumptions do the advertisers
make about the audience?
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Is this a populist advertisement? Or an elitist one? How can you tell? What traditions or standards does it
rely upon to be understood in these terms?
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What is your prior knowledge of the product? Of the advertisement? How does this help you understand
the ad’s meaning?
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In what ways is the ad designed to manipulate you into buying the product? What emotions does it play
upon? What desires does it commodify?
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What unstated messages does the ad convey? What themes does it employ? What does the ad tell us
about American culture?
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Essay: The final draft of your essay must
• provide an introductory paragraph that offers a clear thesis statement;
• describe the key features and important details of the advertisement;
• identify the audience for the ad and explain how this is made clear in the ad;
• discuss the ways in which the ad is designed to appeal to the audience identified; and
• explain the implicit and explicit messages presented in the ad by discussing the mythologies and
ideologies used.
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