Analysing Adverts

– Introduction

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 Introduction

Where do we find advertisements? Write some ideas on

the brainstorm below. The first one has been done for you.

Did you think of all of

these?
on billboards
on the television
in magazines
Adverts
on public transport
on the radio
in newspapers.

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 Purpose

Advertisements can have a variety of different purposes.

To persuade To increase our

us to buy a ‘brand awareness’
specific product

To persuade us
to use a To inform us about
particular service an important issue

Can you think of any others?

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 Purpose

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 Persuasion

Advertisers must persuade us to buy their idea, whether it

is a product, service, brand, or issue.
How exactly do they achieve this?
Here are some ideas:

they make it sound as exciting and interesting as possible

they make us believe that everyone else has or wants this
product
they make us believe it will enhance our lives
they make it sound like the best possible example of its
kind that we can buy.

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 Target audience

Before they create an advertisement, the advertisers must

think about the audience that their advertisement is aimed
at. This is important because:

they need to match the content of the advertisement to

its intended audience using suitable language

they need to create an advertisement that will attract the

audience, using images that the target audience will find
appealing

they need to place the advertisement in a suitable

media to reach its intended target audience.

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 Target audience

Here is a sample advert and some possible target

audiences that it might be aimed at.
Match the advert to the correct target audience.

ITALY, Land of Delicious Is the advert aimed at ….

Food and Historic Culture
school age children?

wealthy holiday makers?

budget tourists?
Visit us for the ultimate
luxury holiday experience keen gardeners?

Answer: wealthy holiday makers

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 Target audience

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 Analysing an advertisement

When you are analysing an advertisement, there are

various aspects that you will need to consider:

The overall ‘look’ of the advertisement on the page.

The images that have been chosen and what aspects
of the product they serve to emphasize.
The appearance and content of the text, including any
linguistic techniques that are used.
The message that the advertisement is giving about the
product.
The target audience that the advertisement is aimed at.

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 Use of language

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 Use of language

Advertisers use linguistic techniques to convince us to

buy their products:

beautiful, descriptive language makes their product

sound wonderful
alliteration makes their advert more memorable and
‘catchy’. The use of repeated consonant sounds creates a
rhythm within the text that helps emphasize certain words
repetition strengthens an image in our minds. By
repeating certain words, the advertiser puts an emphasis
on certain aspects of their product and also makes the
idea more memorable. Repeating a phrase three times
gives a flow and strength to the ideas.

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 Keywords wordsearch

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