Techniques in Advertising WWF

Lesson aim: to learn how advertisers use images and words to persuade to their point of view Learning intentions: I will learn about the impact that images can have in print advertising I will learn how the words used in advertising add to the meaning of images I will learn about some techniques used in advertising. Success criteria: I will contribute to my group discussion of a given advert I will be able to analyse an unseen advert I will be able to explain to another pupil how this advert persuades its audience

Discuss in your groups: Many adverts aim to persuade you to buy products. However, some try to persuade you to the company’s point of view. Can you think of some examples of this type of advert? Where have you seen this type of advert? Has seeing this type of advert ever changed your thinking or behaviour?

Company knowledge: The advert that we’re going to look at was commissioned by WWF. What do you know about this charity? What type of work does it try to do? What type of person do you think an advert by this company would be aimed at? What do you think is the message of the advert?

Composition: This means how the advert has been put together on the page – how the different parts have been positioned and organised, how some parts are larger than others, how some are in the foreground and some in the background. What image do you see in the foreground of this advert? What do you see in the background? Where is the writing positioned? How does the size of the writing compare to the size of the image? Why do you think the advertiser has chosen to compose the advert in this way?

Image and Graphics: We see two animals in this advert. What are they? We see the sunlight coming through the water. Which animal does the sunlight shine on most? Why do you think this is? One animal’s image looks more realistic than the other. Why do you think this is? Look carefully at the image. Which animal is this campaign targeting? Was this obvious to you when you looked at this advert? Why do you think the advertiser has chosen to include an image of two types of animals when the advert is only targeting one? (Think about your feelings about these animals.)

Words and Pathos: Pathos in advertising means an appeal to the audience’s emotions. Next we’re going to think about how the words add to the meaning of the image and inspire emotion in us. Read the sentence in the largest font. Why is it in inverted commas? Whose voice does this represent? This type of question is called a rhetorical question. We are not meant to give an answer – we’re meant to think about what’s being asked. What do you think they want us to think about? What emotion does the advertiser want us to feel when we read this?

Words and Pathos: Now read the two sentences in the smaller font. Whose voice do they represent? Why do you think this is much smaller than the other writing? Next to that is WWF’s logo. Why do you think the advertiser has chosen to make it so small? Why does the charity’s website appear on the advert in the small font? Do you think the advert would be as effective if the writing was bigger? Having thought about all these things, what do you now think the message of the advert is? What do you think the charity would like the advert’s audience to do now?

You should now be able to explain how the composition of an advert and the words and images used create pathos which can help persuade you to a particular point of view. To demonstrate this, you and your partner are each going to be given another advert from the same WWF campaign. Individually you are going to make notes on how the advertiser uses the above techniques in the advert you have been given. Then you will take turns to explain this to your partner.