Empirical Observation Report

The student will observe commercials for a two hour period. The commercials may be consecutive or not. The commercials should be from the same network and local affiliate. The student will conduct an analysis of the commercials and focus on how the advertisers attempt to influence the audience to take certain action. Such action could be the purchase of a product, the donation of time and/or money, matriculation to a particular educational establishment, etc.

There are a variety of different analytical processes that one could undertake. A student could do an audience focus and show how a particular audience or various audiences are addressed during a certain time period. The focus could be on the advertising strategies that are used to attempt to manipulate the audience. The focus could be on the various propaganda techniques or fallacies that Ann McClintock addresses in her essay “Propaganda Techniques in Today’s Advertising.” The focus is left up to the discretion of the student. The point is to have fun with this project.

The “Appendix” section of the report must list the individual commercials, provide a short description of each, and identify one fallacy and its error of assumption. If a commercial were shown more than once in an hour, place the number of times it was shown in parentheses.

The body of the report must consist of four parts.

Introduction
Method of Obtaining Facts
Analysis & Discussion of the Data
Conclusion

The report must be typed and double-spaced. Use a 10 or 12 size font. Use MLA guidelines, except for the following structural divisions.

The overall report must consist of the following:

Title Page
Table of Contents
The Narrative (The Body of the Report)
References (Outside Sources
Appendix (Description and Fallacy Identification for each commercial)