For this paper, you will analyze an ad by looking at rhetorical and visual techniques of persuasion. Advertisements, as you know, are designed to persuade the consumer to buy a product or to think highly of the company. This goal is accomplished by several ways in the text: 1. Make the consumer anxious about not buying the product. 2. Convince the buyer that he/she needs the product. 3. Suggest to the consumer that he/she has an ailment. 4. Imply that the product is the only cure. 5. For institutional advertising, advertise all of the wonderful charities that the company helps. These steps will use ethos, pathos, and logos, in addition to fallacies. You will need to analyze slogans and product names also in this analysis.

Ads, though, have a visual element as well. Color, composition, placement, lines, lettering, visual types (cartoon or photograph), repetition, and font size draw consumers and create an emotional or intellectual response.
Since advertisers combine text and visuals to make an overall statement, your job will be to analyze or break down the whole into parts and demonstrate how each part “works” on the consumer. Moreover, you will discuss how visual and text support each other.
You will have one paragraph on context and one on the company’s history as pertain to the message of the ad. For example, if the ad is about Dannon’s low-fat yogurt, you will look at the year of the ad to see what was happening at that time in regards to health foods or diets. To address the company’s history, look at the institution’s history with healthy eating. You can say that the company has focused on improving American eating habits from the beginning of the product’s introduction in the States.
You will need to consider context, audience, purpose, rhetorical techniques, and visual use. You will have to cite contextual and company material. You will embed the ad in your paper and will need to place your visual so that it creates meaning in your paper.
Thesis: This statement will make a claim about persuasion as created by visual and text. You will provide what you think the company’s message is for the consumer. Be sure to identify the specific audience for the ad. For example, a yogurt ad might try to convince young women that they will be healthier and more attractive by consuming the product. The thesis will include ethos, pathos, logos, and visuals.
Topic sentences: These statements will include the topic, plus a comment about how the component affects the audience. The paragraph supports the claim by analyzing the elements in the ad. Topic sentences and support are significant in this paper. As an example, you could say that the ad appeals to the consumer’s pathos by using words that create a sense of happiness. You will then analyze the “happy” words in the ad and discuss the relationship of happiness to better health or beauty.
This project will develop in stages and will involve research, parenthetical citations, and a works cited. You will have to meet deadlines, revise work, and present the project in a portfolio. You will also embed the ad in the paper, thereby creating meaning through illustration and improving your computer skills. Part of this portfolio will involve your writing a letter to me to explain what you learned from the project. The completed project will be 7 pages, not including the works cited. Put the project in three-hole folder.
Audience: Pretend you work for a competitor company. You will take apart the ad and discuss the other company’s history to inform your bosses about the competition. Be sure to use language and details that would appeal to the audience and that would convince the reader about the competitor’s use of rhetorical and visual text.

Portfolio: Since your company’s board of directors of your company is your audience, the project will be put together in a portfolio with a cover letter that explains the contents. The portfolio should look professional. Please put the work in a three-hole soft binder, not a notebook. Do not write on the outside of the binder. Make sure that you use a new binder.
Cover letter: As the first page of the portfolio, this part of the project will sum up what is in your analysis and then will give your company tips on how to compete with this ad. How can your company improve its market share by advertising? What would a better ad contain? Do not number the pages of the letter. Please sign the letter. The letter should follow the format that I give you in class and should be professional looking.

Purpose of the project: To analyze the use of visuals and text in advertising so that your company can compete.

What events were going on in the world that the ad addresses? Your claim will comment on what the ad reveals about the times.

Company. What facts about the company, its mission, history, and products figure into this ad? Your claim will suggest how the company history relates to the overall message of the ad. For example, you could write, “The Pepsi Cola Company’s history reveals that the company has always targeted ‘healthy’ lifestyles.”

Do you have paragraphs about ethos, pathos, and logos? Do the topic sentences make a claim about what these rhetorical techniques do? Do you tell the reader the specific goal of the devices? For instance, you would say that the company uses logos to convince the consumer that the product will give a certain desired result.

If you have weasel words or fallacies, you’ll make claims about how they persuade the consumer that the product will affect the user in much more intense ways. Think of our discussions of the word “help.”

Do you have topic sentences for each paragraph? Do they explain how the visual connects to the overall message? For instance, in a paragraph about lines, you could claim that the direction of the lines in the visual provides an uplifting feeling that reinforces the company’s claim that using this product gives positive results.

Do you have a conclusion? Does the conclusion tie all major points together without repeating the ideas verbatim? Does the conclusion make the reader think? Do you repeat the name of the company and the overall effect of the ad?