Introduction
Advertising in the modern world has a much greater role than just promoting a specific product. Increasingly, global brands and local organizations try to convey a certain important message to their audience by adopting this method. For example, it can include topics related to racial equality, LGBTQI+ rights, or environmental issues. What essential techniques are used by ad creators to draw people’s attention to the product or issue raised in the image? I think that a proper analysis of different details can be made to understand the power embedded in the advertisement picture. By dividing advertising into individual aspects and examining its meaning, it is possible to perceive the ad’s main objective and effect. Therefore, a thorough analysis of context, audience, and purpose, which incorporates tone, arrangement, location, scale, and text as the key elements, can help improve the understanding of the underlying intention of this piece’s creators.
Target Audience
The analysis should start with the target audience, including men looking for jobs in medicine, which is reflected by the images and the text. As per the methodology presented by Jenna Pack (2013), the author of the article “Breaking Down an Image,” this aspect is critical for grasping the importance of other elements which derive from the general idea. According to this source, well-structured and clear technologies used for picture analysis somehow stem from the people who are expected to be interested in the message (Pack, 2013). Hence, as can be seen from the slogan “Are you man enough to be a nurse?,” which is written in big capital letters, the ad aims to attract the attention of potential male employees in the field.
In addition, the pictures in the advertisement corresponding to the written slogan. They present several men in a conventionally attractive and masculine image, and some of them are dressed in a medical gown, while some are wearing business or sportswear.
Under each person, it is written that he works as a nurse, which may surprise the viewer. In this way, the ad’s authors clarify that male nurses are the same people as everyone else, not a special category of workers with particular characteristics. The emphasis on their other occupations, primarily including army service and achievements in sports, adds to the comparison of this profession to other fields, whereas the former is claimed to be no less important than others. This image does not fit with the stereotypical view of nurses, proving that this ad is intended to break the corresponding stereotypes in society. In other words, the selected means of expression contribute to the significance of this piece while explicitly indicating the target audience.
Context
Another aspect of the ad, which is to be examined, is context, and it is presented by location and arrangement in the first place. Thus, the assessed image efficiently incorporates the key idea of the importance of gender differences in people’s perspectives in present-day society. It is transmitted through a combination of symbolic pictures, which signify the most common stereotypes related to men in this profession. They are arranged in such a way that viewers inevitably understand the context after a brief examination. In other words, the development of the hidden meaning, which is the main focus of the ad’s creators, is efficiently presented to people (Pack, 2013). In this way, the problem is clear to them, and further familiarization with the message is guaranteed by their attention to it.
Considering the efficiency of the selected means of initial communication, the context of this ad, which is the fact that the modern world still has not gotten rid of gender stereotypes, is explicit. Using the example of nursing as one of the fields in which similar perceptions prevail helps demonstrate that society has evolved, so differences in this regard still matter. This idea is underpinned by the location of men in the picture since there are no similar individuals standing close to one another. For example, when referring to the sport as an occupation of male nurses, the authors depicted people doing karate and playing rugby together instead of showing players in the same game. This approach to locating men in this ad seems reasonable from the perspective of a variety of interests, which does not prevent them from being good nurses.
The context thereby contributes to the description of gender stereotypes, which influence the labor market. For example, it is generally accepted that it is common for a man to choose either work associated with energy-intensive physical labor or managerial positions.
However, as can be seen from the pictures, the preference for such activity does not indicate the impossibility of performing other tasks. Even though society views women as nurses, teachers, or shop assistants, this advertisement breaks with gender biases and explicates that it is normal for men to work in these fields. Moreover, this message is extremely important for the ad’s creator, and almost every detail says it. The author deliberately chose men who are entirely different from nurses. With the help of such radical examples, the author wants to convince absolutely every man that his prejudices about this profession were wrong.
Purpose
In most cases, the primary purpose of advertising is to sell goods to people. This is obvious because commercials are made specifically to attract them to stores in search of the advertised product. In the context of advertising analyzed in this essay, it can be said that its task is more than encouraging men to become nurses. The ad’s creators wanted to achieve a broader goal of defeating stereotypes. The evidence of this stance is the inclusion of various components, such as additional text at the bottom, according to which intelligence and courage are the keys to success in any profession, regardless of gender. Thus, this advertisement helps open one’s eyes to the absurdity of societal views on the role of women and men.
In addition, minor details, such as the font used by creators and the arrangement of smaller objects, increase the clarity of the message. Attention to them is a common practice in creating advertisements (Pack, 2013). First, the way the author works with the position and size of the text is interesting. They put the main slogan in large capital letters, from which the message begins to become apparent. The place where the ending of the phrase “… to be a nurse?” is located is just above the smaller text, which makes the viewer pay attention to the small print as well.
The creator also uses an impressive game of uppercase and lowercase letters in the phrase “If you want a career that demands intelligence, courage, and skill,” thereby drawing attention to the actual requirements for the profession. This method allows presenting nursing as an occupation that is as complicated and important as any other stereotypically male job. In the end, the link to the organization’s website highlighted in bright color facilitates the further search for information on the topic.
Conclusion
The in-depth analysis performed in this essay highlights the main aspects which make this advertisement special. Using Pack’s way of analyzing pictures, I looked at the context, discussed the target audience and purpose, and paid attention to the arrangement of the text on the ad. The images of strong men in the middle appeal to the gender biases which exist in society. Text used by the creator makes the profession of a nurse more reputable in the eyes of ordinary men through how sentences are written and located. More importantly, it suggests that gender bias in this field should be eliminated, and the presentation of required skills should be made clear. Thus, this ad powerfully combines recruiting new employees and raising important issues for modern society.
Appendix A
Reflection Questions: Think About Your Writing
- How much time did you spend revising your draft? Which revision strategies did you use, and which of them worked best for you? (2-3 sentences) Sophia says: A good revision takes time. This is your opportunity to re-think, re-arrange, and re-evaluate your writing. Which revision strategies did you use? Do you still agree with your thesis? Do you believe that your evidence supports your thesis and that you have met the requirements of the assignment?
I took 2-3 days to revise the draft after receiving the comments. The process including a careful examination of the issues, search for ways for their elimination, and rewriting the unclear parts. Over these days, I spent about 8 hours making changes and proofread the paper once it was ready, and the best strategy was to reread the changed paragraphs to avoid mistakes. I still agree with the thesis as it fully corresponds to the evidence, which efficiently supports it and, therefore, meets the requirements.
- How did the revision process improve your essay? (2-3 sentences) Sophia says: Compare your draft to your revision. Have you added relevant details or removed irrelevant ones? Have you changed the order of details or paragraphs? Have you added transitions for better flow? In which ways is your revision better than your draft?
The revision process improved my essay by ensuring the correspondence of details to the topic sentences and the thesis. The order of paragraphs was slightly changed in the beginning, and new facts and transitions were added. Hence, this version is better than the draft due to its greater precision.
- What did you learn about your writing process or yourself as a writer? (2-3 sentences) Sophia says: Think about the entire process of drafting and revising this essay. Did any part of the process surprise you or reveal something unexpected?
In the process, I learned that writing requires making changes and rereading materials many times. In turn, the most unexpected part was the lack of clarity in the paragraphs, which initially seemed quite clear to me.
Reference
Pack, J. (2013). Breaking down an image. Sinclair College, 126.