Critical Thinking Essay #1
This assignment is a combination of a Critical Thinking Essay and Visual Literacy Exercise so be sure to follow the instructions below. Conduct the exercise I’ve outlined, but also critically examine your results, and write a thorough response about your experience. (Please read this entire assignment from top to bottom before you click on any links so you fully understand what is required of you.)
Begin by going to the link just below this paragraph and learn “how to read gender ads” using Katherine Frith’s tripartite approach to reading advertising. These examples illustrate Frith’s "Undressing the Ad: Reading Culture in Advertising.”
Once you’ve gained a basic understanding of “how to read gender ads,” conduct your own analysis of gender ads. Begin by clicking onto the link:
This link contains vintage “gender” advertisements from the late 1800s to the 1980s. Go through each decade studying and noting the evolution of gender ads. Take your time with this and be sure to scroll down when there is more than one ad on a page.
Once you’ve grasped the overall picture, go to “misc. years” on that page, open it up and study the 18 ads posted. Select three ads, copy and paste them one at a time onto your page in MS Word and conduct Frith’s three-prong approach for each ad:
1) The Surface Meaning
2) The Advertiser's Intended Meaning
3) The Cultural or Ideological Meaning
When you’ve completed this exercise , write a thorough RESPONSE to your experience, noting in particular Step #3, the “Cultural and Ideological Meaning” of these ads and discuss their impact on shaping societal roles for women – and men – if applicable.
Upload your assignment to Ulearn by class time on the due date.
Hint: Go beyond the superficial, really dig deep and expose the layers of these gender ads and their impact on generations of American women and men.
