Ways of Seeing: Art to Advertisements: How We Interpret Our World
Mr. Burke/English 8CP Spring 1997

Overview the guiding idea of this unit is that we encounter an endless stream of images and icons all of which are designed to affect our perceptions of ourselves, of men and women, of what is beautiful and what is ugly, of who is good and who is bad. We find these images in advertisements for CK and between scenes of Seinfeld ; they come at us as we log onto the web and watch us as we drive down 101. What we see, watch, read, hear--these all have the power to exert different, calculated influences on us as people, consumers, citizens. What are you saying, for instance, when you actually buy a tee-shirt that advertises a product (e.g., Calvin Klein)? Shouldn’t they be paying you? This unit will take as long as we want it to and will require that you look at art, television commercials, print commercials and, if possible, advertising on the world wide web, which is particularly unique because they can program it to advertise to your individual interests.

Requirements

• Look at five different magazines (not five different issues of the same magazine) and pick a total of ten advertisements that you think are particularly interesting or effective. Answer the following questions about each advertisement:
  
  • name of the magazine
    
  • product advertised
    
  • write a couple sentences of very descriptive writing that SHOWS the ad: e.g., a white Lexus crosses a wide-open lush green countryside, an ancient castle sitting off to the right on a small hillock. The sun lights everything in warm tones and no one can be seen, as if this is the last person on earth, all alone, driving into the sunset in the world’s finest car.
    
  • what are they really selling (is it really for shoes or power, image, popularity, coolness, performance?) what are they trying to say to you in this ad? explain how they do this and why. Who do you think their audience is?
    
  • where is the ad placed in the publication? what do they hope to accomplish by putting their ad in that spot?
    
  • if there are any particularly significant aspects of this advertisement that you wish to comment on--the depiction of women, the idea, etc.--please note those.
    
  • This advertisement is/is not effective because....
    
    • reason one (e.g., it does not clearly identify the product)
      
      • support (an image with their logo in lower corner)
        
        • explanation (they are trying to associate...but...)
          
• look at three television advertisements and write up the same analysis. (I realize it is harder with television ads because they don’t sit still like a page and let you look at them at length)
  
• what three products are most heavily advertised? what can you tell me about these products and their advertising campaign?
  
• Essays: Read the following articles and write as directed:
  
  • “The Voice in the Looking Glass,” by Maile Maloy
    
  • “Odalisque,” by Elizabeth MacDonald
    
  • “Ways of Seeing: Men Looking at Women,” by John Berger
    
  • “Mary Cassatt,” by Mary Gordon
    
  • “Just Walk on By: A Black Man Ponders His Ability to Alter Public Space,” by Brent Staples
    
  • “Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self,” by Alice Walker
    
  • “On Being a Cripple,” Nancy Mairs
    
  • “No Name Woman,” Maxine Hong Kingston
    
  • miscellaneous articles on advertising
    
  • miscellaneous poems on beauty, art
    
• Videos
  
  • Killing Us Softly
    
  • Absolutely Fabulous/Unzipped--some fashion film
    
  • Truth in Advertising (Dudley Moore film?)
    
  • Art in the Western World
    
• Project: brief overview
  
  • Each person or pair will take either an artist, photographer, fashion designer, or series of advertisements and analyze their work and make a short presentation to the class as well as write a short paper in which you discuss your insights and conclusions about advertising. We will talk about this more later on as the assignment evolves.