Mallory Jeanmougin-Reading #2

Chapter 7 focuses on the different advertising techniques and ways in which to generate and hold the audiences attention.  This is an important topic because an ad can become null if it fails to hold the attention of the target audience.  The intention behind any ad is to convince people to buy or use a specific product, but you first need those peoples' attention.  The section that stood out the most to me was the problem/solution section.  Reflecting on this section, I find that many commercials that target women are formatted in this way.  Ads that target women, such as cleaning supplies ads, focus on women's innate characteristic of trying to solve problems.  In terms of advertising, this is an effective form. 

Other ads exist that are formatted as problem/solution that are not specifically geared toward women, but I think it is important to note that gender can play a role in which format of advertising you chose to convey a message to the target audience.  Women tend to try to fix anything they perceive as a problem, therefore, problem/solution ads may grab their attention more readily. 

In the section, it talked about the deodorant ad for women.  Combining that idea with the idea of the short video clips, the ad that comes to mind for me is the Sure deodorant ad.  These ads show women wearing bells for a day to demonstrate how much they move in a given day.  The deodorant is seen as a solution to this problem.  But these ads are also effective in that they pose the problem/solution idea as a challenge for women to truly become self-aware, which is also attention grabbing for women.