Essential Question: How does advertising influence our choices, shape our desires, and reflect the values of our culture?
Purpose: The purpose of this module is to develop your critical reading skills through the analysis of texts about advertising. We are surrounded by advertisements on television, on social media, and on the streets. Understanding how they work is a crucial skill in the modern world. By analyzing the language and strategies of advertising, you will build the vocabulary and reading skills necessary to understand persuasive messages and become a more conscious consumer.
Desired Results: By the end of this five-day module, you will be able to:
Every day, we see hundreds, maybe even thousands, of advertisements. They are on our phones, on our televisions, and on billboards as we travel through the city. The main goal of advertising is to persuade us to buy a product, use a service, or believe in an idea. But how do they do it? Advertisers use a combination of powerful images, clever language, and psychological strategies to capture our attention and win our trust.
In this chapter, we will explore some of the common techniques used in the world of advertising. As active participants in your learning, you will practice several reading strategies. We will work on obtaining general and specific information 6, identifying main ideas 7, inferring meaning from context 8, and summarizing 9 the messages we see.
The Power of Emotion
One of the most effective advertising techniques is appealing to our emotions. The main idea 10 behind this strategy is that feelings are often more powerful than facts. An ad for a car might not focus on the engine's specifications; instead, it might show a happy family going on an adventure. The goal is to make the consumer (the person who might buy the product) associate the car with feelings of happiness, family, and freedom. The advertisement isn't just selling a car; it's selling an experience.
To understand these ads, we need to obtain general information 11 about the feeling they want to create. Then we look for specific information12, like the images of smiling children or beautiful landscapes, that supports this feeling.
Dialogue 1
Sofia: I saw a commercial last night that almost made me cry. It was about a dog finding its way home.
Alex: I think I saw that one! Was it an ad for a telephone company?
Sofia: Yes! It was a very emotional campaign. It didn’t even talk about the product until the very end.