GED Social Studies: Deciphering Ads
In today’s day and age, we’re bombarded with a lot of advertisements, and a lot of the time there’s a ton of information thrown at you at once. Sometimes it’s not even related to the product, like when they have women in bikinis playing volleyball in the snowy Alps for a beer commercial. Sometimes there is a lot of relevant information though, and it’s good to know exactly what the ad is trying to get at.
In the above image, what information about the product is most important to the advertisement?
1. It catches a lot of dirt.
2. It cleans quickly.
3. It has bristles made out of nanotubes.
4. It’s red.
5. It’s inexpensive.
Ok, so looking at this ad, right away, the biggest thing I can see is the name, “Speedy Broom.” Also, look at the broom, it’s got speed lines rushing by after it. And finally, the very first bullet point says that it cleans floors in half the time. So before I even read the answers, I’m thinkin’ “this is a fast broom.” Then when I look and see, “it cleans quickly,” I can guess that I’ve already found my answer. But it’s always good to look at the rest.
Number one and number three are both mentioned in the ad: “Nanotube bristles catch more dirt than a conventional broom!” So, we know they’re true, but I think that all that stuff about the nano-bristles catching more dirt and not sticking to hair and dust just supports how fast the broom is. To tell you the truth, I don’t even know what a nanotube bristle is, but that doesn’t matter. It’s obvious that it’s not the main purpose. Otherwise it would be called “Nano-Bristle Broom” or have lots of dirt being swept up in the image, right?
Number four is true ’cause it is red, but that’s not really important in this ad. If it was a blue broom, the ad would still be saying the same thing.
I don’t think number five is right at all. $30 for a broom doesn’t seem very cheap. Maybe for a wild nano-broom with nano-bristles it’s inexpensive, but even so, the price is at the bottom. It is red, which makes it maybe a little important, but I just think that the speed of the broom is the obvious choice here. What do you think?
Keep studying everyone, and have a great holiday season!
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