Unit 4: Advertising

The Creative Process
Last update:2 April 2024

Key Topics

  • Advertising and sponsorship 鈥 location, messages and audience
  • Evaluating claims and appeals in advertising
  • Examining the design and production of advertisements
  • Product placement in programmes
Module 10 MIL

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, educators and learners will be able to:

  • Analyse the advertising process as a means of communicating information
  • Explore concept development in advertising, including technical and creative strategies
  • Deconstruct the key ingredients that go into an advertisement and its emotional appeal
  • Assess the impact of advertising messages on specific target audiences
  • Explain how the concept of 鈥榓ctive鈥 audiences applies to advertising, or more specifically, how audiences negotiate meaning (i.e. how we explain the success of some advertisements and not others)
  • Identify the latest trends in advertising
  • Identify product placements in programmes as indirect advertising (mixing editorial and commercial content)

Pedagogical Approaches and Activities

In summary: as discussed earlier in this Curriculum (Part 1), various pedagogical approaches are possible. Please review the list in Part 1 and decide which approach to apply to the suggested Activities below and others that you may formulate.

  • Take a tour of your learning space, surrounding or neighbourhood
    • Identify the kinds of advertisements, public service announcements (PSAs), promotions or sponsorships that exist there
    • Provide a brief description of each advertising/PSA/sponsorship example
    • Describe the message and image created through each example and assess their effectiveness in conveying necessary information
    • ldentify the source for each example (i.e. who created it or who benefits/profts
    • Explain why businesses and institutions might choose to have their names, products or logos located here. Explain in what ways these sponsorships/ promotions differ from 'traditional' advertising
  • Survey a collection of magazines, view ads on television and visit a number of websites of major companies.
    • Describe the advertising strategies used in current examples
    • Select a number of ads to examine closely
    • Describe the 鈥榩ersonality鈥 of the product featured in each ad and identify the emotions the advertiser is trying to evoke
    • What promises or solutions does the ad or PSA offer? How realistic are these?
    • What views of happiness or success are being communicated?
    • Identify the information, messages and values conveyed in each ad
    • Discuss the need for a clear distinction between editorial and advertising content. Also, are any specific claims being made in these ads? What facts are presented to support these claims? Is any of the information misleading or unclear? Based on your analysis, what recommendations would you make to the audience for this ad? In other words, would you accept the information being presented in this ad? Why or why not? Would you suggest any changes to make the information or message more accurate or complete? Explain with examples from it)
  • Select a print ad to examine closely. This exercise requires you to consider the design elements used in the ad, the information and message being conveyed, and the audience being targeted. How do the design elements (composition, angle, light, colour, choice of words, etc.) support the message and information being conveyed? In other words, how does form reinforce content?
  • Product placement means placing a commercial product prominently in a particular radio or television programme or a book, and also increasingly on the Internet, without identifying it as an advertisement, to satisfy the product manufacturer who has sponsored the programme (i.e. paid for it entirely or met some of the associated costs). Some regulators permit product placement on the condition that viewers are clearly informed of the product placement at the start and at the end of the programme. But this is seldom enforced by digital communications companies. Select examples of product placement: are they identified as such? lf regulations relating to product placement exist in your country, what actions can citizens take? What is the message conveyed about the product because of the context? What messages are conveyed through the product itself as well as its context? Would a different context or placement change the image of the product and its message?
  • Make a list of the players involved in the advertising industry. This should involve individuals and institutions/organizations. Describe their respective roles. Consider any audiovisual advertising. Do you think the role of each of the key players you listed is explicitly reflected in the ad? How do you think your knowledge of those involved in the creation and dissemination of this ad helps you to better interact with it or to assess its usefulness in providing the information you need? (Note: in this regard, the documentary film series The Persuaders may be of interest 鈥 see a description of this programme in the list of references at the end of this module.)
  • Research: Visit the following . Look at the different awards presented to different countries with different advertisements. ldentify any similarities and differences in advertisements techniques, including technical and creatives strategies in different products.
  • Major social media channels where advertisements can be placed include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WeChat, Pinterest, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube and Snapchat or others. Discuss their different approaches
  • Research the automation of advertising placement and the role of brokerage companies relying on big data and real-time auctions. Examine campaigns like #StopHateForProft which pressure digital communications companies to end the incentives for hate actors to get advertising next to their content by 鈥済aming鈥. This incentive works by automated direct placement of adverts based on assumed opportunity of the targeted audience engaging online, and it occurs without due care by the companies to stop this unless there is public pressure for them to act.

Assessment & Recommendations

  • Write an essay on the pros and cons of advertising through social media.