Yr 10 COMPARATIVE ASSIGNMENT

PREP Start your comparative assignment in a Word document. We looked at how to format it in class.

• create a header with your name, the school's name and B321 Comparative Assignment
• write down with the essay title
• below that, introduce what you plan to write about, identifying the three advertisements
• copy / paste your earliest advertisement (image) then start writing about it.
• the focus is representation, that is, who appears and how they come across to us
• you have 500 words for each advertisement so you can be detailed
• you could start by putting the advert into context (the time in history, perhaps, or the place)
• paragraph each point separately
• it's usually a good idea to start with the 'bigger picture' ("The woman comes across as timid and dependent because... The man clearly thinks of himself as....The uniforms place this advert in wartime...") then go into details about what people are wearing, carrying, doing, how they behave with others, their 'lifestyles'.
• there will be a slogan: that is usually a direct message to the target consumer.
• the brand name conveys the brand's values (Charlie is for the liberated modern woman whilst Midnight Poison suggests a more daring and vampire-like 'man eater'!)

Example:

A comparison of how women and children are represented in fragrance advertisements from the 1920s, 1970s and 2010

I have chosen to compare three advertisements than span nine decades: Springtime In Paris (print 1920s), Arpège (print 1970s) and Inspire Christina Aguilera (moving image 2010).

The thing that shocked me most and stood out most was how elegant, discrete and sophisticated the women were in the 1920’s when the advert I analysed was done in paint compared to now where women are represented in 2010 as openly alluring and much less subtly represented with their actions.

Springtime In Paris (print 1920, France)