Ads: A Powerful Tool for Critical Thinking & Argumentation - Essay Sample

Introduction

In everyday life, it is clear that critical thinking is considerably an argumentative practice. Advertisement (ads) campaigns tend to be more powerful in information provision and persuasion than just words. This is because they can reach an extensive targeted audience base, such as people who are not able to write or need. Besides, in terms of producing precise and clear images regarding the message conveyed makes them efficient. Notably, advertising may be termed as a speech that uses critical thinking in everyday life practical reasoning and evaluation of skills in institutional evaluation. There advertisements campaigns should go behold capturing the casual eye. Visual analysis is a basic tool that many people use in creating their advertisement campaigns because they help in understanding recognizing the visual choices used in creation. This essay discusses the criteria used for analyzing an ad to determine why some of them are considered effective or ineffective.

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Criteria for Analyzing Ads

The convincing power to buy a product is the primary argument contained in any ad. Notably, this does not necessarily mean that logos have not been primarily used in ad creation, but also made through ethos and pathos. Through pathos and ethos, ads do not highly focus on persuading using logical text but by using emotional subtext that brings the unstated primary meaning. As mentioned earlier, the visual choices used in ads can only be understood and recognized through visual analysis. Visual analysis tends to address the visual attributes or formal elements present in a specific creation. Studies by (Kjeldsen, 2012) show that conducting a perfect visual analysis requires a closer look at the object or the ad and then translating the visual observations in writing. Apart from simply making visual observations, a visual analysis must provide a clear claim regarding the creation. Some various elements or attributes form the criteria for analyzing an ad. They include the target audience, implicit messages, graphics, language, and cultural significance.

Determining the targeted audience is the starting point when performing a visual analysis of an ad. It is important to look at the context that makes the ad when performing a visual analysis as it will help in figuring out the people the advertiser is striving to persuade. This is essential during the analysis because it will help in determining the sorts of emotions and beliefs the ad targets to appeal (Blair, 2012). Therefore, determining the targeted audience in an ad helps to know the type of audience and ways of telling the chosen audience. Moreover, it will help to come up with the readers' implications regarding the feelings or knowledge of the product during the analysis (Kjeldsen, 2012). For an ad to remain effective to the targeted audience, it must target an individual from a specific demographic, which as a result, will help in determining the hidden social implication that the ad intends to incorporate. However, an ad that targets the overall demographic may indirectly reflect negative attitudes and matters such as alienation, generational conflict, and stereotyped thinking.

The implicit ambience or message of the creation is another criterion for discussing an ad. The claims regarding the implicit message in an ad should be arguable. The message or words that an ad contains are significantly meant for informing the audience regarding the product as well as manipulating their reactions towards it (Kjeldsen, 2012). This will help to know why the advertises used or chosen particular words in their ads. Ads with hidden messages make ads ineffective because it creates a misunderstanding among the targeted audience (Blair, 2012). Notably, these messages may negatively evoke the targeted audience manipulating them not to buy the products. Therefore, effective ads must provide a promising appeal to the customers because it makes them perceive that the advertised product promise strength and beauty

The type of images and typefaces used in the ad are also critical attributes to use when conducting a visual analysis of an advertisement. The type of images and graphics in an ad helps in depicting the products as well as complementing its depiction (Kjeldsen, 2012). For instance, the graphics and images used in an ad help to categorize their classifications to discuss how these graphics influence the targeted audience's reactions towards the product. This helps advertisers to consider whether the reactions of the targeted audience would change when subjected to a different audience. For an ad to be considered effective from this point of view, it must aim at appealing the emotions of the audiences (Blair, 2012). For instance, ads portraying images of pure and fresh products appeal to the targeted audience. This is because the targeted audience will be able to connect the products with their hygiene and health. After all, society endorses fresh and pure products as a beneficial lifestyle. However, ads that fail to make specific logical claims about the superiority of the product makes it ineffective. This is because it makes the products intensified and exaggerated, which are inaccurately informing to the targeted audience.

References

Kjeldsen, J. E. (2012). Pictorial argumentation in advertising: Visual tropes and figures as a way of creating visual argumentation. In Topical themes in argumentation theory (pp. 239-255). Springer, Dordrecht.

Blair, J. A. (2012). The possibility and actuality of visual arguments. In Groundwork in the Theory of Argumentation (pp. 205-223). Springer, Dordrecht.