CNN Ad with Anderson Cooper

by Carol Arcus

The ad featured here lends itself to several avenues of investigation, starting with obvious methods of basic deconstruction, to larger issues of cultural representation.

DOWNLOAD THE AD (PDF format, 196kb)

Here are some questions; you can start simply, or move straight to the big issues, depending on the age and/or experience of your class:

• What might be being promoted here? How do you know?
• What might be the effect of the setting on the meaning of the ‘story’? What degree of realism is depicted in the setting? What is the effect of the proportion of sea, to sky, to land? How might we read the presence of the camera? How might the meaning change through different angles of the camera toward the children?
• What appears to be the relationship between the children and the photographer? How can you tell?
• What might be the effect of the man kneeling in front of the children (as opposed to standing)? How does this kind of grouping influence the different narratives that emerge from this picture?
• What might be the purpose of using children and an adult? How do the presence of children contribute to this meaning?

Propose different ‘narratives’ that this picture suggests.

• How might the enlarged print text (2 lines) be supporting a narrative?
• What is the difference between ‘the stories I’ve told, /the places I’ve been’, and ‘stories I’ve been told,/the places I’ve been.”?
• What might be suggested about the children’s own culture in relationship to the man’s? From whose point of view is this story told?

How might race representation be significant here? Explain.

What ideas about communication are suggested here?

What global issues are suggested here? For example, what ideas about community are suggested? How do these ideas compare to what we might assume is a reality?

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There are several strategies that may work for this investigation:

• students can graffiti their responses, in groups, on large sheets of paper, and then do a walkabout to see what the class came up with.
• each group of 3 or 4 students can examine an aspect of the ad: colour, juxtaposition, narrative, race, gender, print text, audience [target & diff. readings],  ideology
• each group of 3 or 4 can write up a ‘reading’ from a specific given perspective, and the class can discuss the different factors which influence individuals to interpret differently (eg, race, gender, background)

Some media log response questions: ‘how is meaning constructed in this ad?’ ‘how does the reader’s response affect meaning?’ ‘what factors might influence the way a reader interprets this ad?’ ‘examine the messages about the relationship between Western and non-Western cultures embedded in the ad’

An extension which might work here would be to design a PSA which promotes global community/pease through juxtaposed images of different cultures. Students would first need to actively imagine and then search for, or create, images which would be appropriate as representations of other cultures.