For the past month we have been working on our last project of the year, “Medium is the Message.” At the end of the project we  each created an advertisement for a specific business that groups of people were assigned to. Each group interviewed which ever business they were advertising for and asked questions to help create an ad most true to the business. Before creating our ads, we learned the different techniques, appeals, and detail that goes in even some of the most basic ads. For example, many of Ikea’s ads may look simple, but in reality they use certain techniques to help lure in cosumers. We even learned how different colours can give off different emotions or vibes, hospital walls tend to be coloured blue or green as the colours tend to calm and relax people. We took all these new found factors into consideration and made our ads.

My final ad

All my ad drafts and critiques

Ikea ad example

We then showcased the process while making our ad, and our final ad drafts in the 2023 spring exhibition. The spring exhibition was much like the winter exhibition except the spring exhibition came with some improvements, and new roadblocks to learn from.

The spring exhibition had a smoother set up time than the winter exhibition, interactive activities and presentations to entertain the crowd, many snacks, the grade 8s project booths looked great, and there was a steady flow of visitors. The winter exhibition was much more chaotic, and the crowds were very patchy. There was either absolutely no at your booth, or it was packed making it difficult to get through the exhibition. For the spring exhibition there were stamps and maps given out for each room you visited making the flow much more steady and enjoyable for the visitors and students.

Of course there were additional roadblocks that came along with the spring exhibition that the winter exhibition may have not had as much of. All of the grade 8s were in one room making the booths more cramped which made the presentations a little more uncomfortable for us students. Because there was more food in this exhibition, food was also being stolen by fellow students (which is honestly understandable considering we had  yummy treats laid out) but this did create a slight inconvenience. The clean up after the exhibition was also very chaotic which was tough since everyone was very tired and cranky, but we were done in no time. 

Despite the improvement of the spring exhibition, next time I would help encourage more communication within my ad group as our group was a little disorganized and lacked communication. But in the end I think everything went well!