Select a full page advertisement from a popular mass audience magazine (e.g., Time, Glamour, Sports Illustrated) and write an approximately three-page, double-spaced analysis of the principle signifying practices the advertisement invokes. Use page numbers. Please include the ad or a photocopy of it with your essay, staple or paper clip your paper.

Just about any ad will do, but it’s a good idea if you select something you find interesting. It’s also good to stay away from ads that have lots of detailed information about the product (e.g., herbicide ads for farmers). Ads for well-known and unimportant products are usually the most interesting, such as ads for beer, liquor, cigarettes, beauty items, soft drinks, sports cars, corporate image ads, etc.

Things to consider: How does the ad make meaning? What are the oppositions in the ad? What are the denotations? The connotations? Does the ad use metaphor? Metonomy? Does it use any syntagmatic systems of meaning? Does it involve myths? What cultural code systems does the ad appeal to? How do the patterns of signification in the ad articulate social codes about things such as power, race, class, gender, respect, or authority?
Remember that semiotics is a way to explain how things mean, not what they mean. Don’t just provide a laundry list of things you notice about the ad. Use the terminology and principles from the chapter (Avoid saying things like “the ad gives the viewers meanings,” “the ad tells us,” “the ad implies,” “the advertiser wants the reader to believe,” “the ad makes the reader want x,” or other colloquial language for explaining what’s going on. Use the language of semiotics!) Write your analysis in the form of an essay, in a clear and interesting way. There is no one correct way of explaining the systems of meaning-making in the ad; writing a good analysis involves some imagination as well as accuracy. Keep it short, but spend some time working on it. It will be easy to fill up a page or two with random comments about the ad, but difficult to provide comments that are illuminating, precise, and thorough. Remember, you are making an argument in your paper.

A good way to begin your analysis is to try to reconstruct what happens when you first looked at the ad. What did you notice first? Why did it grab your attention? What did it make you think of? Do you notice anything else after looking at the ad for a while? What happened when you read the written copy — did it, perhaps, change your understanding of the pictures? Once you’ve done that, you can often identify cultural codes in the ad by using substitution: what would happen if the ad used a model that was the opposite sex? A different race or age? What if the background were different? Answering questions like these helps develop an understanding of the key signifying elements of the ad and the ways that they relate.

Here is a sample of the organizational structure of a paper:

A. Introduction: What, Why, How …

1. Briefly describe the media artifact (the ad).
2. Explain why the particular media is significant to your reader.
3. Tell your audience how you will provide evidence or demonstrate an analysis of the media artifact—preview the points of the paper. Discuss at least three concepts/tools from the Semiotic Criticism chapter.

B. Body of Evidence: Describe the media artifact (ad) and explain what the audience should notice.

1. Provide a brief, denotative description of what the advertisement is about.
2. Develop the analysis. Identify a concept important to understanding the advertisement through a Semiotic lens. Then give examples that shows that concept. For example if you say the ad invokes the creation myth then you’ll need to describe what triggered that for you. For example the ad might show a man standing naked on a mound of dirt with animals all around him.
3. Move on to the next concept. Write several paragraphs about it, following the instructions in B2. Make sure you are using the language of Semiotics.
4. Move on to the third concept. Write several paragraphs about it—being sure to include multiple examples. Give quotes or a detailed explanation of the images to support your argument.
5. Explain how these examples work together to create an overall effect.

C. Conclusion: State how your analysis provides new insight about the media subject:

1. Remind the audience why the media is important (as stated in your introduction).
2. Review your points
3. Finally, explain how your analysis provides new insight, reveals assumptions, or unintended meanings represented by the selected media (in this case, the ad).