Advertising Morality
Message prompt

An important part of any advertisement is the picture. Most ads found in the chapter contain images that dominate the text. “The Enforcer” advertisement, for example, contains a picture that completely takes over the text. In fact, the text is written in small font and placed at the very bottom. Most people probably do not take the time to read the text, but merely observe the picture. Another example of this is the “Children Aren’t Born Violent” ad. There is a photo of a young child’s face. Across his eyes is a bar containing smaller images of violence, which represents the violence he has seen in his life. Again, most of the text is written in small font and this time, placed at the very top. Like the first example, most people probably do not actually read this text. Instead, they probably only notice the picture. One advertisement that is not dominated by the picture is “You’re Running Because You Want That Raise”. Though it features a large picture, the text is more dominating and attracts much more attention with the different sizes and colors.

The picture in each advertisement is not always clear. As aforementioned, the text is not always noticeable. Therefore the ad heavily relies on the image to get the message across to the audience. However, most pictures do not clearly identify exactly what the advertisement is trying to say. A good example of this is “Father”. In this particular ad, a young man is shown smiling with small text scrolled across the middle of the advertisement. If someone were to look at the picture without paying attention to the text, they might think it was advertising something about college. After all, it looks like the kind of happy student college brochures are always showing. Yet the text shows that the boy has messed up by using drugs, and now he is a father. No one would be able to guess that just by looking at the image. This advertisement heavily depends on text to convey its message. A quick glimpse by a passerby of the ad will not leave a lasting message in someone’s head.