For this assignment, you must select an advertisement with the purpose of analyzing how it uses gender to sell a product. I recommend that you find a commercial to analyze using You Tube. If you have one in mind, you should be able to find it pretty easily by searching youtube.com. Magazines are also very good sources for print ads that use gender as a selling point quite often.

As you pick your ad, ask yourself these questions: Is the audience for this ad either male or female? Is the ad targeting or selling to one particular gender? How are they doing that? If the ad is NOT necessarily selling to one gender, what ideas, assumptions, or stereotypes do we see about gender being displayed in the ad? Remember that ads are selling a “lifestyle”—an image of a perfect life or close-to-perfect life. What does the ad assume is the ideal lifestyle for men and/or women?

Your paper will use the lessons we learn in class on analysis, description, and responding to a text. In your paper, you should describe the ad, analyze the elements of it that make it a good ad, and make an argument about 1) what audience it reaches and 2) how it reaches its audiences. What visuals or jokes or themes does it use to appeal to its audience? Use the Rhetorical Analysis handout posted on D2L to ask questions about the ad to lead to your argument. Your paper should include the following:
•A clear introduction and conclusion that are separate paragraphs from the body. Your intro will include your thesis, and your conclusion will remind the reader of your thesis without repeating it exactly.
•A clear and detailed description of the ad and what happens in it. You need to clearly state who the company is and what product they are selling.
•A thesis statement that states who the audience of the ad is and how the ad reaches that audience.

•Structure and development. Although I have no rule about paragraph number for this paper, I expect your paragraphs to be appropriately sized and developed, and organized in a logical and effective order. I recommend 4-5 paragraphs in total.
•Proofreading: fix errors that you already know about and make sure that the paper is formatted correctly and looks good, in MLA format. You will need one citation on the Works Cited page, for the ad. No other research will be done for this paper.
•Reflecting lessons learned in class and online. In class, we will go over thesis statements, paragraphs, development, formatting, grammar, etc. Your paper should show that you paid attention to these lessons. In other words: take notes!
•Your paper should be a minimum of 800 words long (although it’s ok if you go over). It will be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman size 12, NOT bolded or enlarged. Your header should follow the MLA format as described in our lessons.