The leading questions below invite the development of a particular, shaped response to each advertisement. Play along even as they may seem to exaggerate or foreclose certain possibilities. It will be interesting to discuss both the specific insights you generate about an advertisement’s meaning AND your response to trying on these lenses.

 Movado

Look closely and list the various elements that combine to form the overall effect or mood of this ad (colors, shapes, blankspace).  Reflect on the metaphor implied by the joining of two sets of elements - violin: star musician as watch:           ?        . Is the language of distinctive? Does it contribute to the overall "harmony"?

 
Dillards

What assumptions about the roles of men and women are reflected in this advertisement? How important are those assumptions or stereotypes to its message? What place does it want to assign women (or to invite them to inhabit)? What goals does it imagine for women? Are there any ironies or contradictions that a viewer approaching it as a skeptical woman might note?

Simon/Northeast Mall

Examine first the minimal text, then try to follow the story implied by this carefully staged picture. Describe a in "super-slow" motion the process of reading/viewing this advertisement (or what you think the advertisement is inviting you to see). To what kind of person does it imagine it speaks? What are its ideal viewers concerns, goals, and troubles. 

Riviera Mexico

Think about the different languages, cultures suggested by this advertisement. Outwardly, it simply presents an attractive vacation destination.  What does it imply about the relation of Mexico and the United States? What contradictions might a skeptical viewer note in the message and names.  (Who are the Maya? Where is "the" riviera? ) Check the fine print; how does the hyperbole attempt to gloss over a possible conflict? 

Mercedes

The concept of this advertisement involves a handful of oppositions (eg. danger/safety). Make a list of them, then examine the language.  What is the significance of the pun in the headline? Does the storyline (in gray) consistently support the favored values or does it embody a contradiction? What gap or unstated idea lingers behind the text but cannot be spoken?

Courts at Brickell

This advertisement stages an interesting visual scene, assumes a familiarity with the vernacular “fashionable late,” and invokes social conventions.  What ideas about luxury, value, and entitlement does this advertisement trade upon? How does it address the viewer? Does it invite a certain kind of self-identification? How does the text subtly undercut ideas about prestige and priviledge?

Setai

This advertisement makes use of loaded images and interesting word-play.  What kind of object of desire does this advertisement evoke? How does it imagine the foreign or “other”—as attractive, unobtainable, both? In what sense does it evoke a sense of the unknowable or unspeakable? If “setai” is not actually an known word, what does it come to symbolize in this dream-advertisement?