What’s in an Ad? (Assignment Four)

The first ad I chose was a “Quit Smoking” advertisement. This ad immediately stood out to me as (as most anti-smoking ads are) shocking. The left hand side of the ad shows two guys smoking in a room with the ceiling “burnt” out and a group of individuals looking down into the room. On the right side of the ad, the viewer sees the dirt/open grave with the same overhead shot of the group of individuals/loved ones looking in on the presumed dead smokers. The ad stands out because of not only its shock value, but the continuity by using the same basic shape and color for each side of the advertisement, and having the same shot at the top of the advertisement.

The second ad that I looked at was a Pepsi advertisement. This one didn’t use shock value for its force, but there is definitely a bit of humor forged in this piece. The left side of the ad has a Pepsi can and the right side is a bowl of Cheeto-type chips, reaching out of the bowl to grab the Pepsi. When Pepsi started altering their image to keep up with Coke, they began the slogan “The Choice of a New Generation.” This slogan, along with “Joy of Pepsi,” debued within a year of each other. This ad seems to definitely grab the attention of the ‘new generation.’ At this point, the company was still utilizing “Pepsi Joy” as one of their taglines, but I think this ad was speaking to the younger individuals who consume Pepsi products, as well as others who want to think/be young.

The final ad that I chose to look at was an old Ronald Reagan advertisement. I think the major thing that struck me as far as differences for this ad in comparisson to the others above (beyond being a political ad) is that without the wording on this advertisement, it would just look like an ad for a mortuary (It looks a little like a memorial photo, don’t you think?), or possibly for going to work at a Business/Corporate location. Of course, Reagan’s face was known to a generation for his time in movies, but if it was shown to perhaps our grandchildren, would they know what this was without the wording?