Analysis of an advertisement

1. Ascertain who the target audience of the commercial is. Use the context of the
commercial (e.g., what channel it’s played on) to figure out who the advertisers are
trying to persuade. This will help you determine what sorts of beliefs or emotions the
commercial is meant to appeal to.

● For example, if the commercial appears on a TV channel that mainly shows

children’s programming, then you can deduce that the advertisers are trying
to appeal to children or maybe the parents of young children.
● If you see a commercial in a movie theatre, you may be able to determine its
target audience based on the nature of the movie.

2. Examine how the commercial tries to get your attention. Advertisers want their
commercials to be eye-catching as well as persuasive. Look for ways that
commercials try to reel you in, such as flashy visuals or special effects.
● How a commercial seeks to grab your attention can also say a lot about its
target audience. For example, a commercial that uses explosive special
effects may be aimed at teenagers and young adults.
● Advertisers don’t just want their commercial to grab your attention; they also
want you to remember it. Consider how their attention-grabbing techniques
are meant to stick in your mind and influence your view of a product over the
long term

3. Determine what sort of mood the advertisement seeks to create. The ultimate goal
of any commercial is to shape the way you feel about a product or service. Examine
the mood of the commercial and how that mood works to shape your feelings towards
the commercial’s product.
● For example, a commercial might prominently feature upbeat music,
smiling faces, and sunny weather to create a generally happy feeling that
you then direct towards the product the commercial is advertising.
● Advertisers will usually try to make commercials that put their product in a
positive light. Determining how they go about doing this will also reveal
what unspoken beliefs or values the commercial is attempting to appeal to.

4. Listen to the soundtrack and ask how it affects your reaction. Commercials may
use music to subtly influence your emotional reaction to the product being advertised
or use a jingle to make the commercial more memorable.
● For instance, may accompany depictions of a generic product with sad music
to make you feel that products other than the one being advertised are not as
good.
 ● Ask yourself if your feeling towards the commercial would change if it used
a particular genre of music versus another, then think about why different
music styles elicit different responses from you.

5. Consider how the actors chosen to star in the commercial influence

you. Advertisers make very deliberate choices when it comes to hiring actors to star
in commercials. Examine the age, race, and gender of the actor(s) to determine what
sort of response the advertisers are hoping to get from their audience.
● For example, if a commercial pairs a particular beer brand with women in
bikinis, the advertisers may be trying to appeal to teenage and adult men
through sex appeal.
● Think about why an actor or actors of a certain race or gender were
selected, and ask yourself if the perception of the product would change if
different actors were used in the commercial. This may indicate certain
biases or subconscious motives at work in the ad.

6. Analyze the language used in the ad. Nearly all commercials feature talking, either
from actors starring in the commercial or through a voice-over. Examine the specific
words that are featured in the commercial to see how they are being used to appeal to
the audience’s emotions.
● If you’re analyzing one or more commercials for a marketing class, you may
find that certain words are used more frequently than others. For example,
words like “tasty” and “sensational” are commonly used in ads because they
tend to make products seem more desirable.
● Pay particular attention to words that aren’t used to directly describe the
product, and think about why those words have been included in the
commercial. If words aren’t overtly being used to inform the audience,
they’re being used to covertly influence viewers.