Essay 1: Narrative, Visual Reading and Political Advertisement

In a paper of roughly

you are to track down a political advertisement guilty of underhanded

techniques in its partisan electoral pitch (you may choose print or video as you prefer) and explain what

nefarious tactics it employs to sell its product. Your goal is to expose the misdeeds of the advertisement:

in what sense is the ad "wrong" in its presentation of its subject matter, and how would an educated

audience refute its claims?

Your analysis should certainly include an analysis of logical fallacies used in the ad. As we have discussed

in class, however, there's lots of other ways political ads mislead us, as well. Thus, you'll also want to

explore the "visual reading" tactics we've examined in this week of the course. That is, you should

examine not only how the ad twists logic to sell an idea or candidate, but also how it carefully crafts

visual imagery to sell that electoral product. (We will practice combining these techniques in class as the

deadline approaches.)

For this first assignment, I'm asking you to perform only a small amount of research. In this case, you'll

be doing "primary" research - that is, you'll be exploring the internet to find the ad you'll be writing

about. (That's distinct from "secondary" research - in which you find sources that are studying the same

thing you are. The research you will undertake on future essays in the class will be "secondary" research.)

As you go out and find the ad you'll write about, remember that you should select carefully: your papers

will go much better if you find ads that offer a wealth of logical and visual trickery to expose. Not all ads

do (even the political ones).