Making Sense of Victorian Advertisements

You've had a chance to look at quite a few advertisements from a variety of primary sources in the 19th century (both with a physical material text and an online digital surrogate). For this post, we're going to build on the skills you developed for the previous post, Interpreting the Material Text. This time, we're focusing on advertisements.

Below are a series of questions about interpreting advertisements (borrow from Daniel Pope's "Making Sense of Advertisements"). Answer these questions in your response as they pertain to your advertisement. (Some of Pope's prompts may not pertain to your advertisement.) You may answer either in bulletted, complete sentences or create paragraphs. The goal of this post is to consider the ephemeral material attached to literary texts. Include references and brief discussion of our reading, "The Importance of Ephemera

Now that you've completed two posts, we're going to institute the late submission policy -- no points for discussion post late submissions. Each post is worth 10 points; see our grading rubric for these posts.

See also the Writing Tips to help with formal voice in these posts.

Choose one of the advertisements from Our Mutual Friend, available here: http://omf.ucsc.edu/publication/advertisements.html Links to an external site.

Include each of the below elements in your post.

1. Include an image of the advertisement in your post.
2. Describe the advertisement. Remember to include as many details as possible. (For this point, avoid analysis. Stick to agnostic description.)
3. What is the ad trying to do Links to an external site.?
   • Does it aim to persuade readers to buy something for the first time or to switch brands?
   • What group did the advertisement try to reach?
   • What publication did it appear in, with what kind of readership?
   • What does the ad want the reader to do?
4. Who is the intended audience Links to an external site.?
5. What strategies are used to sell the product Links to an external site.?
   • Does the advertisement offer a “reason why” to buy the product? Or is it oriented more to emotional appeals? Does the ad feature the product or does it focus on the people using it? Does it address the reader directly with suggestions or commands? Does the ad offer a reduced price or a premium? Does a celebrity provide an endorsement? Does it play on fear or anxiety or make positive appeals?
   • How does the ad attract the reader’s attention? What route do your eyes follow through the ad? How do styles fit with cultural trends?
6. What does your ad conceal or reveal about an era Links to an external site.?
7. What else do you need to know to analyze your ad Links to an external site.?
   • Like with the previous post, what are the research questions that you would like to delve further into in order to understand your advertisement?
8. Include the bibliographic entry at the bottom of this post for the advertisement and all resources that you references.
   • This will help you track down any ideas or references you made in your post when/if you come back to this post.
   • Remember to use our links to resources for any questions about historical moments. (Avoid doing a blind search through Google -- that will turn up too many hits.)
   • If you're wondering about a word, go to the Oxford English Dictionary Database Links to an external site. (requires SJSU log-in) and/or Google's NGram viewer.
9. As with all of our discussion posts, even though this is in bullet points, remember to use formal writing style (which means no first person!). Check the Writing Tips.