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The Medium is the Message-Summative Post

For this summative blog post, we had to answer our driving question:

How does what we hear, read and see influence us?

We had to make an ad for a local business in Deep Cove to help us get the answer to our driving question. I earlier talked about this project with This Post. From there, we have created our final ad draft:

As you can see, it’s slightly different from what we had for our previous draft. We made those changes after having a guest, Mr. Hepburn give us feedback on our ads. Mr. Hepburn works in the advertising industry and has had years of experience with making ads. He had us move some text to the top, some to the bottom and add more fruit falling. The ad instantly looked better and it showed what you learn after years of practice in the advertising industry.

Below are the changes we had to make after our visit with Mr. Hepburn:

I don’t believe the driving question could have been answered without Milestone 3: Historical Advertising Analysis. For this Milestone, we had to analyze a historical text and see how it would be viewed back then, as opposed to now. I picked this: , which you can see would be viewed completely differently nowadays, it would be completely unacceptable. It, however, really shows that everyone back then let the media tell them what they can and can’t do, and has that really changed? It makes you think about how the media influences what you eat, buy, wear and use. When we hear, read or see an ad, it becomes a part of us, according to Marshall McCluhan’s theories and I think he is spot on with that. Things that you hear, read and see, influence our decisions, thoughts and actions daily. If we see a coke ad, then see a Pepsi ad, we will probably compare the two ads, whether we realize it or not. The media subconsciously becomes who we are. So I think the answer to the driving question is what we hear, read and see influences a lot of us. Whether we realize it or not, ads become a part of us, just look at the kid wearing a brand name hoodie across the class. Whether it’s a great or small role, ads influence what we buy on the day to day basis, you might be about to buy a shirt then you remember an ad you saw for a different shirt that you like more. In these ways, the media influences everything about us, our thoughts, actions, and decisions

I learned a lot about the media during this project. I learned things about advertising I didn’t think existed and were important to the advertising process. An example of that could be Advertising Techniques and Appeals. When I learned about these, I realized there is a lot more to the ads I see every day. Pretty much all of them have at least one technique or appeal and I realized that influences you. On Milestone 1, I had legit no clue what I was doing. I was confused about why we were reviewing an ad and confused about why Apple would put so much work into an ad, and just very confused in general. However, by the time I did Milestone 6, I had a complete understanding of these things and could answer them without a second thought. Like, Apple put a lot of work into the ad to show that they put quality into everything, no matter what (Also because Apple has a ridiculous amount of money but that’s beside the point). This shows my growth as a learner and shows that I know a lot more about when I started this project. 

On Milestone 1 and 2 I didn’t do great. I had a couple of revisions to do, and that’s no one’s fault but my own. However, after that, I got passing grades and had zero revisions. I think this shows my growth as a learner. I went from being confused about this project to knowing completely what to do and how to do it. This project shows that I’ve grown as a learner and “Graphic Designer”. In conclusion, This project taught me a lot about advertising, media and how it affects you. I have learned a lot and had fun making the ad.

Other members of my group are : Teva, Nolan, Santiago and Samuel

“Try to catch your eye, show something that we haven’t see,”

-Starry