Advertisement Example: “Tradition meets Technology”

A male student on a dark background, his face and chest lit by the light from the book in his hand. Text reads "Tradition meets Technology."

“Tradition meets Technology,” created by Shea Fleming, Raghav Grover, Silas Howerton, Maansi Jain, and Poojan Mehta

Ads as a Class Assignment

There are a variety of visual genres assigned by Georgia Tech English 1101 and English 1102 instructors, not to mention how visuals are utilized in history, art, science, and engineering communication. Some of the genres recently assigned include posters, infographics, photo essays, sketch notes, or optical illusions. Advertisements are a common genre of visual communication. Designers of ads utilize the visual mode to convey a specific message to their audience, often attempting to persuade the viewer to purchase a product or service. Sometimes, ads might ask the viewer to attend an event or go to vote. Because of ads’ high visibility as a genre, you might be asked to create an advertisement for a class assignment.

Analyzing Visual Advertisements

Contributed by former Brittain Fellow Dr. Mimi Ensley.

Rhetorical Situation and Choices

Purpose

What is the future of the book? In Dr. Mimi Ensley’s Fall 2019 English 1101 section, students imagined the book technologies of the future and then developed advertisements to promote these imagined innovations. Their ads needed to communicate the functions of their proposed technologies and also entice targeted audiences.

Audience

The students creating the advertisement featured above wanted to develop a product that would appeal to readers who loved traditional books, but who were also interested in the next new thing. As one student wrote in her reflection on the project, the students aimed to “bridge the divide” between old and new. Another group member affirmed that the group sought to bring together the past and the future, tradition and new technology, particularly through their choice of image and typography. All students completing this project considered how best to communicate their ideas to well-defined audiences through the principles of visual design outlined in this book.

Rhetorical Appeals

This group identified pathos as the key rhetorical appeal featured in their visual design. In conceiving of their product, they wanted to tap into viewers’ nostalgia, their desire to curl up with a well-loved book. The group’s imagined company name (in this case, the name of the course) and logo feature subtly in the corner of the design, contributing to the ethos of the advertisement.

Modes & Media

Dr. Ensley allowed students to choose what media they would use for their advertisement. Some groups created videos; others made GIFs. This group decided to use a still image, suitable for placement in a magazine or other print-based publication. This decision limited the students’ audience in some ways, but it also allowed them to target readers with demonstrable interest in print-based media.

Elements of the Genre

Copy: The text in an advertisement is known as “copy.” This group designed a short, yet impactful, slogan and emphasized it through its size, placement, and contrast with the dark background. This ad does not feature a product name or detailed information about the featured technology, but such text would be common in a print-based advertisement like this one.

Branding: This group designed a simple logo and included it in the lower corner of their image. Because they aren’t a well-known company, the brand name is less important to their audience, and thus is given less emphasis on the page.

Images or other graphics: While this group used a single photograph, other ad designers might include illustrations, bold graphic elements, or other prominent visual features.

Style

This advertisement’s designers wanted to keep the style simplistic, choosing to focus on a single striking image and a minimal amount of text. The simple style entices viewers, provides key information, and simultaneously leaves potential buyers wanting to know more.

Design

Designers of all visual artifacts (and not just advertisements) take into consideration such principles as emphasis, contrast, color, organization, alignment, and proximity. The students creating this advertisement focused heavily on the stark contrast between the reader’s illuminated face and the dark background surrounding him. Contrast is also apparent in their choice of fonts, with one style suggesting the book’s adherence to “tradition” and another emphasizing innovation, “a typewriter-like font” in contrast with “an old computer font,” as one group member wrote. The emphasis placed on the group’s slogan concisely signals the goals of the imagined product.

Sources

Advertisements do not usually include formal citations. This group consulted other companies’ ad campaigns (including advertisements designed for the Amazon Kindle and Audible audio books) for inspiration before they made their own design decisions. However, if you do include images taken from external sources, you should make sure you have the appropriate permissions and give credit in an appropriate format.

Text for this page came from Chapter 12 in WOVENText, 2021 edition.