Essay on "Advertisements Are Texts"

Essay 4 pages (1211 words) Sources: 0

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Advertisements for technical and vocational schools abound in local newspapers and television. Their target audiences include new high school graduates as well as middle to lower-income individuals, because consumers of technical and vocational education most likely do not already have advanced degrees. The advertisements usually appeal to young adults, although age is less of an issue than gender. Technical and vocational schools target men and women differently, and the content of the ads change depending on the department or program being offered the differences in the advertisements often reflect traditional gender roles and norms. For example, a recent advertisement for DeVry University touted its nursing program with three photos of females from different ethnic backgrounds. The lack of male models in the advertisement clearly played up the stereotype that nursing is a female profession. On the contrary, an ITT Tech advertisement promoted its School of Information Technology programs with photos of women surrounded by electronic gadgets. The advertisement implied that it and related technology fields are gender neutral. Both DeVry and ITT Tech offer vocational training and degree programs, but each school's advertisements capitalize on gender roles and norms to appeal to their target group.

The DeVry advertisement for the Chamberlain College of Nursing uses imagery of females in traditional gender roles, whereas the ITT Tech advertisement uses imagery of females in nontraditional gender roles. Females have been systematically ushered into the helping professions like nursing instead of towards medical school. The Chamberlain College of Nursing hopes to attract female consumers based on their traditional values. The advertisements appear in local newspapers to encourage females with traditional social values to pursue a career in an accepted field for their gender.

Vocational and technical schools sometimes direct their ads at target groups to clearly appeal to more progressive gender roles. The ITT Tech advertisement appeals to young females with progressive gender identities. Because the advertisement shows three females working with advanced technologies, the school appeals to women who want to work in traditionally male professions. The advertisement appeals to women who believe that gender roles are changing. Careers in the sciences and technology fields do not necessarily need to be dominated by men. What ITT tech is stating in their advertisements is that they are a progressive school. They will attract female consumers who are put off by ads like the Chamberlain one. Essentially, the ITT Tech advertisement suggests that their female consumers can do or be anything they want, with the help of ITT Tech. The DeVry Chamberlain School of Nursing advertisement, on the other hand, suggests that their female consumers can achieve traditional goals within a traditional framework.

However, the advertisement for DrVry Chamberlain School of Nursing succeeds in not only attracting female consumers with traditional gender norms. The advertisements also appeal to female consumers who have families, who want to start families, or who work full-time. For example, the advertisement for the Chamberlain College of Nursing shows the female models and the text portion of the ad mentions receiving the nursing degree "on your own time" and with "flexibility." The continuing education products that DeVry's Chamberlain School of Nursing offer appeal to those consumers who cannot afford to attend school full-time. The non-traditional degree programs are sometimes offered as distance education or in other ways that appeal to middle to lower income consumers as well as to stay-at-home mothers. The gender roles are implied not just in the photos of the female nursing students but also in the text portion of the advertisement.

Of the fifteen basic appeals of advertising, both the ads for vocational schools rely on the need to achieve. In… READ MORE

How to Reference "Advertisements Are Texts" Essay in a Bibliography

Related Essays:

Advertisement IT's Halftime in America the Super Term Paper

Advertisement

It's Halftime in America

The Super Bowl attracts millions of viewers from around America each year. During the commercials, the same numbers of viewers are bombarded with information about… read more

Term Paper 3 pages (932 words) Sources: 4 Topic: Transportation / Mass Transit

---

Advertisement the Advertising I Have Selected Thesis

Advertisement

The advertising I have selected for description is an advertisement to Goodyear, renowned worldwide producers of tires. The reason I have selected this advertisement is that, despite a limited… read more

Thesis 4 pages (1130 words) Sources: 1+ Topic: Advertising / Marketing / Sales

---

Advertisement Analysis of TV Advertisement: Wendy's Fearsome Term Paper

Advertisement

Analysis of TV Advertisement: Wendy's Fearsome 'Baconator'

If you talk the talk, shouldn't you walk the walk?" This sort of confrontational bit of dialogue might seem to come, out… read more

Term Paper 4 pages (1439 words) Sources: 4 Topic: Advertising / Marketing / Sales

---

Advertisements for Runaway Slaves and Indentured Servants Research Paper

Runaway Advertisements

Case #1 Virginia Gazette (Parks), Williamsburg, From May 2 to May 9, 1745

On March 30th 1745, an English convict servant woman named Isabella Pierce ran away from… read more

Research Paper 4 pages (1234 words) Sources: 0 Topic: Women / Feminism

---

How a Print Advertisement Represents Gender and Sexuality Essay

Gender in Ads

An advertisement for Calvin Klein "Double Black" Jeans depicts a shirtless man bent over some kind of table or bed. His torso is featured prominently and comprises… read more

Essay 3 pages (955 words) Sources: 0 Style: MLA Topic: Sexuality / Gender

---

View 100+ more related papers  >>