| Dr. Heather Hill-Vásquez, Department of English, University of Detroit Mercy |
English 131
Advertising Unit - Essay Assignment
In this essay you will examine cultural myths in American life and will compare their appearance, use, and meaning in a 1970s print advertisement (selected from All-American Ads of the 70s) with a contemporary magazine advertisement (selected from a magazine from within the last five years). Drawing from readings from Rereading America, we will focus on three American cultural myths: individual opportunity ("the American Dream"); gender; and "the Melting Pot." You should familiarize yourself with the four myths within the next few days and select your two ads for analysis and comparison. Please consult the Course Schedule for the deadline for your ads selection as well as all other deadlines. Xerox copies of ads are not acceptable.
To succeed in this essay, you will need to develop an argument that asserts what your comparative analysis of your selected ads tells us about American cultural myths and values. You will need, for example, to do more than assert that a cultural myth still exists or that it has changed. How do your ads help us to understand a specific aspect of the cultural myth? How and why has the myth changed and developed? How has it stayed the same--and why? What in recent American history might account for what you wish to assert about your ads and your comparison of them? And, fundamentally, what can we learn about American culture from your analysis and comparison that is interesting, original, thought-provoking, and meaningful?
In addition to reading and using one or more of the essays from Rereading America in order to help you support your assertions about your ads, you are required to find and use one or more other research sources concerning American culture and history. (Most students, for example, find it extremely useful to find sources that describe and/or explain events, trends, etc., from the 1960s and 1970s.) In all, your final draft of your essay must demonstrated a careful use of at least three sources with no more than two of these coming from Rereading America. You must use proper MLA citation throughout your essay and when constructing your Works Cited page. You must also cite your two ads as sources in your Works Cited page.
Preparation and Possible Approaches
Finding good ads to analyze and compare is your first major task and you should devote some time to it. The more subtle and/or complex your ads are in sending indirect messages and in engaging cultural myths, the more interesting your investigation of your ads and their meanings will be. Do not just choose two ads at random or at the last minute.
Begin your search by looking closely at both the ads you like and those you dislike, or ads that create some sort of response in you--including a response that you perhaps cannot initially describe. Ask yourself what the ad is doing that makes me react. Is there something in the ad to which I'm responding that I didn't see at first? How is the ad doing more than just selling the product? What cultural myths are present? What might a particular pairing of a contemporary ad and a 70s ad help you to demonstrate about American, life, its values, its cultural myths?
Refer to the "Looking at Advertising" handout for more advice about how to "read" and analyze ads. Nothing in an ad is accidental. So look closely, analyze, and work hard. Ads rely upon subconscious messages and one of your main tasks in this essay is to reveal those subconscious messages--their impact and their meaning. Remember that agencies plan extensive campaigns--and spend millions of dollars--on ads so don't give up and say "I'm reading too much into this." In fact, thinking like this will not help you succeed in your essay.
Refer to the Course Schedule for all deadlines and other important information.
Your first draft should be at least five pages long. Your final draft should be at least seven pages long.