Professor Mongar
Fall 2004
Coercion Individual/Pair Project #2
Print Advertising
100 total points
Description:
This project involves analyzing ten magazine advertisements that target one specific group of people, i.e.
women, young girls, men, alcoholics, etc. Since you are mainly concentrating on visual text, do some
research about visual text in advertising to see how images are manipulated to sell products and services.
Consider use of color, light, symbols, etc. You can use ads in Spanish but you must make a complete
translation including explaining any subtleties that a non-Spanish speaker might not understand.
Method:
1. Find ten current magazine advertisements that incite strong emotions.
2. Scan your ads.
3. Using MLA, analyze the ads using logical fallacies and what you have learned in class during
various lectures and readings. What fallacies or appeals are being used? What negative messages
are being communicated? Each analysis should include the following labels and information:
 Product Name
 Manufacturer or Seller
 Magazine Name and Issue Date
 Target Market/Audience – gender, age, class, racial or ethnic group, education
4. Are these advertisements contributing to some social problem in Puerto Rico? Present evidence of
the problem and the link to the coercive advertising. As far as analysis, be sure to be specific, with
examples and evidence to support your analysis.
Presentation Format
 Create a title page on your WebCt homepage and link to your geocities homepage.
 On your Geocities website:
a. Create a title for your project. Make sure you have a title page your/partner’s name(s).
b. Write an introduction to your project.
c. Arrange your images with their analysis in the body.
d. Write a conclusion based on how these advertisements may be contributing to specific
social problems such as anorexia/bulimia, low self-esteem, etc. Use sources.
e. Be sure to use quotes, attributions, paraphrases, citations where necessary and you should
have a work-cited page at the end with at least five sources in English.
f. This is formal writing. Spell check and use your Keys for Writers for grammar problems.
g. Develop a 5-7 minute presentation of your project for the class.
h. Critique classmates’ projects. Post on Webct.
i. Write a process paper at the end of your project. More information on criteria for process
papers and presentations will be available later.
Example of labels for each ad.
Product Name: Infinium ASP
Manufacturer: Infinium
Magazine Name and Issue Date: Information Week, June 12, 2000
Apparent Target Market: Information technology executives
Analysis: The main appeal in this advertisement is a false analogy, implying that managing your own
business software is like cutting your own hair. There may actually be very good reasons for a company to
manage its own software, and at any rate the comparison between managing software and hair cutting is
ridiculous, with essentially no commonalities. The fact that the man in the photograph is wearing a business
suit, tie, and gold cuff links is an associative appeal: you, dear reader/executive, are like this man--only
hopefully not so foolish. The body copy includes the claim, "Take your eyes off the ball these days and
you're headed for trouble." This statement, together with the false analogy, also creates an appeal to fear: if
you manage your own software, you might be headed for "trouble." Infinium's claim to "take technology
hassles out of your hair" is no doubt designed to be humorously appealing, though the degree of humor is
open to question.