The Medium is The Message: mid-project reflection 

Driving question: 

How Does What We Hear, Read, and See Influence Us?

Wow we are already halfway done on this project! There have been ups and downs in this project but it has been mostly fun. So far we have done Milestone’s 1, 2, and 3, made 3 individual ad drafts for businesses in Deep Cove (my business is Honey Doughnuts), made 3 group drafts for the business, and learned so much about advertisement and how it effects the world. 

Milestone 1

For Milestone 1 we had to write a paragraph on the analysis of the Apple “Welcome Home” video (a HomePod advertisement). For this we had to describe who the target audience was and what the message of the ad was. I found writing this paragraph hard because I really had to deep dive into what the actual message was. It also didn’t help that I had terrible writers block. Even though it was hard to write this paragraph I enjoyed the process because it made me see the bigger picture of this ad. I literally did everything to try and embody the ad. I watched the ad probably 10 times, each time taking notes of what the ad’s message could be, I even danced to the music of the ad to see what the woman in the ad was feeling. I thought that the ad was very moving and persuasive. I want to buy a HomePod too now!

Milestone 2

Out of all the milestones we have done so far Milestone 2 was my favourite. For this Milestone we had to write a paragraph on an historical advertisement, we also answered the 5 key media literacy questions. The reason this milestone was my favourite was because I got to see how different ads were in the 1950’s and 60’s then now. I chose an ad that was very sexist and misogynistic. It literally said “Show her its a man’s world”. I couldn’t believe how biased this ad was and it was very influential to write about the topic of sexism in ads. 

Milestone 3

Milestone 3 was a lot like Milestone 2. The only things that changed were that we didn’t have to answer the 5 media literacy questions and we wrote about what techniques and appeals they used in the ad. I rushed this milestone and I could’ve gone deeper into the techniques and appeals in the ad. I also could’ve chosen an ad that wasn’t sexist so it could’ve been different than milestone 2. Although I still did a pretty good job on this milestone. 

For my individual drafts of my ads I tried to focus on the warmer yellows for a colour scheme, having a more retro font that matches the honey’s logo, and giving the ad a overall homey feel. Once I made my first ad I didn’t change the ad too much from there. 

Once we made two individual drafts we shared them with our groups to get feedback and critique. Then after one more draft we added all the good parts of our ads together and created the group drafts.

For my group drafts we used less pictures, still kept the homey feel, and kept my font from my original drafts. 

We got feedback from Honey’s to change the font to be less retro, include more description, say what honey’s message is, and to be less bland overall. Although this feedback is negative that is ok because it is good to have critical feedback. I would rather be flat-up told what to change then the customer not be happy with the ad I created.

How Does What We Hear, Read, and See, Influence Us?

That is the driving question of this project. Though I cannot fully answer this question, I do have one idea;

Ads are part of our daily lives. So many things that we hear, read, and see include or are advertisements. For example, when you watch a movie and they show a brand name on screen that means that the brand paid the producers to show that brand. You also see so many regular ads on a daily basis. On Instagram, on Tv, on buses, in coffee shops, and that doesn’t even list them all. 

Overall, this project has been fun so far and I can’t wait too see what the finished product will look like!

Cherrio👋🏻 

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