This assignment was developed as the final project for a hybrid and online teaching seminar. Much of the work — choosing a cultural artifact and researching in the archives, for instance — could be completed synchronously and in class, with the writing and analysis completed asynchronously.
For this project, you will dive into the fascinating world of advertising and its power to shape cultural perceptions. Together, we’ll journey into advertising archives to analyze how advertisements portray specific cultural artifacts, to explore how these representations change over time, and to reflect on these changes and their implications for society.
The project is divided into three parts: archival research, creative representation, and contemporary analysis, with each part building on the work of the previous one, as well as our class discussions.
Part 1: Visual Representation of Archival Advertisement
1. Choose your cultural artifact: Select a cultural artifact or theme that interests you. This could be anything from a specific product (for example, Coca Cola), a fashion trend (blue jeans) or a broader theme (“the American Dream”).
2. Archival Research: Explore the JWT Advertising America Archive or the Advertising Archives to find ads related to your chosen artifact. Find at least 10 ads covering at least five different decades. For recent ads, feel free to use resources beyond these two archives. Take photos of advertisements you come across on the subway or on streets. Screenshot relevant ads that come up on your social media accounts or in magazines or newspapers that you read.
When selecting your ads, here are a few things to consider (keep a record of your close reading as these reflections will be the base of your critical essay in part 2):
- Who is the target audience? Who are these ads typically aimed at?
- What assumptions do these ads make about the audience’s desires, values and needs?
- What persuasive techniques do the ads employ (humor, nostalgia, famous persons, ethos, pathos, logos, etc.)?
- What do the visual elements of the ads convey (colors, body language, facial expressions, etc.)?
- How is language used in the ads to evoke emotion or persuade viewers (slogans, headlines, speech and any other written or spoken text)?
3. Create a visual timeline: Using Timeline JS, a free, open-source tool, organize your findings into a timeline showcasing how the representation of your chosen artifact has changed (or not) over time.
Part 2: Analysis and Reflection
In this portion of the assignment, you will make use of the visual analysis you have worked on in order to write a critical analysis essay. As you reflect on the timeline you have create and the advertisements you have chosen, think about the evolution of your cultural artifact over time: How has the portrayal of your artifact changed across decades? What messages or values did the past advertisements aim to convey? Are these the same messages they still convey nowadays? How did the shift in representation take place: suddenly, or slowly and gradually so that only intentional reflection reveals it? How do these changing representations reflect the prevailing culture of the time? What do they say about the state of our societies nowadays?
Your essay should be 4-5 pages long and follow MLA citation guidelines.
Part 3: Creative Representation
Based on your archival research and critical essay, you are going to create a new advertisement for your chosen cultural artifact. The considerations you thought about when choosing which ads to include in your timeline should guide the development of your own ad. Choose one of the following options:
- A reimagined ad: Select one advertisement from your visual timeline and recreate it for a contemporary audience. Who would your target audience be today? How would the visuals, language, and overall message be different?
- A counter-advertisement: Create an ad that critiques or subverts the prevailing portrayal of your artifact as you discussed it in your critical analysis essay.
- An ad for the future: How do you imagine your chosen artifact might be advertised in the future? Consider the potential cultural shifts that might influence the ad’s messaging and presentation at a future time.