You meet ads all day: on your phone, on the bus, on a screen at the shop. Most of them are doing a job on you before you notice.
Today you learn five techniques ads use, practise spotting them on invented ads, then start a spotter sheet of real ads from your own week. That sheet goes into your Communication Portfolio (finish any leftover finds as homework if you need to).
Five techniques show up again and again. Learn the names, then study one short invented poster that uses lifestyle advertising cleanly.
| Term | What it means for you | How it often looks |
|---|---|---|
| Sensationalism: shock or spectacle that stops you scrolling. | You look before you think. | A billboard with a huge cracked phone and one word: Broken? |
| Endorsement: a known person backs the product. | Their status rubs off on it. | A county captain holding a sports drink. |
| Testimonial: an ordinary person praises it. | It feels like a neighbour, not a pitch. | A short clip of someone saying a new app fixed their mornings. |
| Lifestyle advertising: selling the life, not the thing. | You want the feeling more than the product. | A soft-drink ad that only shows friends laughing on a pier. |
| Repetition: the same phrase until you cannot unhear it. | It sticks whether you wanted it or not. | A jingle that returns three times in thirty seconds. |
An invented bus-stop poster for a drink called ClearSpring. One photo of friends laughing on a pier at sunset. The only words: ClearSpring. This is what good feels like. Tiny type: Enjoy as part of a balanced lifestyle. The photo sells the life, not the drink. That is lifestyle advertising, pure and simple. Nothing on the poster is about flavour, ingredients, or price.
Three invented ads. Before you tap a part of an ad, say which of the five techniques you think is at work there. The tap then shows the technique and what it is doing, or Nothing hiding here if there is none.
Work the first ad with care, then the second. The third is optional if time allows. When you have a few finds, press Talk about it and talk through one of its prompts with the person beside you. About two minutes.
Start your Advertising Techniques Spotter Sheet on this page. Add each real ad to the list below under the technique it uses most, with one sentence on what that technique is doing. Aim for five real finds across at least three techniques.
Bank at least one real find under any heading before the bell. Finish the rest as homework if you need to.
What counts: the list is not saved, so type each find into the box below as well, then copy the box into your Communication Portfolio folder as m3_l75_ad_spotter_<your-initials>. That file is the Portfolio entry.
Sources you can use right now:
Invented Mark It Up brands do not count. The ClearSpring note on the sheet is a model only and does not count as one of your five.
Talk this through with the person beside you.
If one answer sticks, add three lines under today's date in your Reflective Journal after class.
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