Teaching Ad Analysis Skills

This teaching article explores the strategies used by advertising and media studies professor Cynthia B. Meyers to teach semiotics and visual analysis in advertising and communications classes. Rather than assigning dense theoretical readings, Meyers models ad analysis through various in-class activities. She asks students to select television commercials they are drawn to and watch them repeatedly, thinking critically about how the ads try to appeal to them through various persuasive strategies. Students then write an essay analyzing the commercial, using key concepts such as hard sell, soft sell, denotation, connotation, and more. Meyers also uses historical ads as examples to show students how advertising has evolved over time. The class also examines emotional appeals based on family relationships, sexual relationships, success in sports, fear, and humor. Additionally, Meyers guides students to recognize associations with wealth and high social status that brands make in ads and identify the values being conveyed, as well as the targeted market segment. Meyers shares her assignment, challenges students may encounter with it, and advice for other instructors on how to use it in their classes.