Writing Feedback / Help Performing Marker's Revisions on Advertisement Analysis Essay [3]

Legend: places with (i), (ii), (iii), etc. are where the T.A. made comments for revision. These are repeated at the end. Comments on how well I have revised the piece/ suggestions to meet these revisions are welcome.

This 2016 print advertisement from a London-based financial information company taps into people's need for leisure and calls them to thoughtful action about investments through pathos in both visual and textual form. At first glance, its simple arrangement of a sentence fragment and clock components creates competition between money and time to entice the target audience of adult readers new to the investment world to use the company for financial advice; both visual and textual elements create a sense of dichotomy and urgency which is used to sell the service.

Why did this company invoke competition between money and time to lure its audience? The ad uses pathos by speaking to resilient cultural constructions, keenly known to new adults, defining a good life as consisting of two discrete and paradoxical categories, at once opposed and unified-the money made and time spent making it-and of all the relations between the two as an inherent psychological battle for dominance in the observer's brain. This can be seen in the visually competitive framework of the ad when it is not folded out. The stern message of "Remember. Money is everything in life" is contrasted with a collection of clock parts (London). This visual competition speaks to cultural realities enacted in daily life, where abstract ideals of time spent on 'what matters' are continuously accosted by the necessity for money to do 'what matters.'(i) Given this dichotomy there is a clear need of the advertiser for the viewer to only consider these two choices which is reflected in the background colours of the ad. Black and a whitish cream, with a strategically absent gray. No wiggle room; just a binary set of culturally infused ideas. This approach draws in viewers and starts a slow stream of questions and intrigue.

This psychological challenge is couched in a familiar setting for advertisers: questioning previously held notions. The more serious and competitive implications of the print (note the bold lettering and staccato sentence fragment) tell a narrative of weakness in the swirling tide of life's financial pressures. The sentence prompts the viewer to question his or her own merit and priorities. Suddenly, the widely circulated and aspired to notion of money as a stepping stone to happiness-couched in notions of perhaps moral decay (such as some of the rhetoric of young liberals) or a linked fear of the transformative power of competition-is in question. What is a life if you do not have money to enjoy it? Suddenly, societal assertions of money-free happiness are in question (ii): Viewers must decide their own position and consequently think in an extended fashion about the ad. A picture of clocks and a sentence becomes a dialogue concerning social power as well as behavioral negotiation and prioritization. Time itself is laid out as a precious commodity.

The explicit message of the unfolded ad is largely conveyed through text. The text is large, white and prominently placed against a dark background and the previous sentence. There is a clear sequence to the words, slow movement leading to message reversal and capitalization on that reversal. It posits a simple answer to the swirling emotions and questions in the viewer's head after the first page: prioritize time. The inner dialogue of the two halves is set off by itself to emphasise the instincts that London Stock Exchange Group wishes to instill in viewers-a drive that will entice them to let the Group handle their investments. The initial firing up of viewers is cooled and the resulting flow put towards selling the service.

The ad plants the seed in the viewer that time is not just precious in a cultural sense but has its own quantitative value equal to that of money, as demonstrated by the bold line, "Value your time" (London). Such wording implies that success can truly be measured in the manner previously questioned: time spent doing 'what matters.' This equating of value is the driving force behind the ad's success. The creators understand the intended viewers' concerns and expected cultural values; so much so that they have a service built around that concern: investing your money so that you can enjoy 'what matters.' Indeed, the ad seeks to bolster the reader's confidence in the company by first undermining it, thus establishing a connection to the company and piquing interest in its service.

The portrayal of the clocks themselves consolidates all the intricacies embedded in the ad's language and strategies-notions of competitiveness, dichotomy, inner workings laid bare, and so forth-in visual form.(iii) Like its first page textual counterpart, the clocks' portrayal begins in harsh condition after years of work. As such, the grammar of the images draws in the intended audience, offering defiance to the adjacent text. Just as the strategy and language of the advertisement play on two levels of interpretation (text vs. image, "success" vs. leisure), the clocks' portrayal lends itself to multiple meanings as well. These meanings, though ornately hidden, are important to uncover because they reveal the intended thought process of the reader and offer a glimpse of the illusory happiness being struck upon, all in the blink of an eye. It is important to investigate, then, exactly that which the London Stock Exchange Group hopes to communicate visually before the viewer turns the page.

The clocks appear to be languid, almost broken agents. At first glance, their positioning seems straightforward-both are disassembled, wires coiled, passively broken. Upon a more detailed inspection, however, subtle hints of strength can be observed - the clockface, though weathered and worn, was clearly once quite sturdy, while the text, bold and fresh, is placed almost daintily amid an ocean of blank space. While these differences certainly suggest a hierarchy of difference and priority, it is a hierarchy obscured by the advertisements' text. Overall, these two images are seemingly intended to begin a cascade of emotions in the viewer.

Advertising campaigns like the one highlighted above trade in acculturated notions of priority and power. The paradoxical categories of money and time smoothly flow past one another in the swirls of the coiled clocks until the prospective investor is convinced that the service is worthwhile. The advertisement reflects the ways in which these categories circulate in popular discourse, invoking and reinforcing them at the same time. Only by becoming aware of how these concepts are used to bring about a certain conclusion can we attempt to make truly informed choices about products.

(i): Does the background colour work in to this as well? The black and white/cream doesn't leave much room for grey area. Was this used strategically to persuade?

(ii): What about the people for whom it is not called in to question. What effect would this statement have on people who feel very strongly that money ISN'T everything?

(iii): Could the deconstruction of the clocks symbolize some other things - perhaps stopping time, or the irrelevance of time? Is there a dual meaning for the clocks when considering the two meanings of the texts? Perhaps a sense of urgency that fades into the feeling of timelessness that one gets while on vacation or surrounded by family/friends?

T.A.'s overall comments: : In general you did a good job walking the reader through your arguments, but in some cases a little more in-depth analysis would have strengthened your paper. Identifying a specific target audience may have helped focus your discussion of the rhetorical/persuasive devices used as well