Critical Ad Analysis
& Greenscreen
Mock-up
Marketing Strategy Analysis
Reading Analysis:
The purpose of this workshop was to help lift the advertising curtain, as it were, to expose the impact of and strategies employed by advertising. This, in turn, is intended to help me do likewise for my students. Critical literacy is key to this process, the primary tool for dissection and analysis. It's a prerequisite of the modern era for children to learn to be critically literate, lest they surrender, "personal autonomy to the pervasive sociocultural messaging emanating from mass media outlets" (Hughes, 2021). Students must learn to deconstruct the onslaught of messages they receive from the media that permeates their lives. An effective manner by which to teach the skills of deconstruction lies first in learning how those messages are constructed. By having learners analyze ads and then construct their own, an increased awareness of the deliberateness behind media messages is all but inevitable. The task empowers learners, as it did me below, to subvert the manipulative intent of the messages they are endlessly bombarded with (Hughes, 2021).
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Greenscreen Ad Construction:
Questrade is a Canadian-based online brokerage firm.
They have a large percentage of the Canadian market share and have a strong online and television advertising presence. Examples of their various ad formats can be seen below.
The samples above provide a good snapshot of Questrade's main marketing ploys. While the majority of their content could charitably be described as 'helpful, free information', much of it is laden with industry jargon. Fret not though, because nearly half of their SNS posts share simplified explanations of that very jargon. This two-pronged approach helps establish a clear in-group/our-group dynamic, which along with their other 'helpful' posts, serves to help them capitalize on FOMO, the fear of missing out.
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Like a 1990s infomercial, Questrade positions itself as the answer to all our prayers. What's more, if their ads are to be believed, they do so with the purest of intentions, too. Not only do they offer users a chance to be a part of the democratization of investing, but they do so for no better reason than to help, "...Canadians make money." We should be so lucky.
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In an effort to expand this democratization, Questrade has set their sights on female investors, as evidenced by the third post above (and many others on their various SNS pages). This may seem surprising, given that women as a group tend to invest less than half as frequently as their male counterparts and exhibit more risk averse behaviour. However, it makes (dollars and...) sense in light of the finding that they also tend to outperform males when they invest.
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Questrade's ads also show a desire to brand themselves as modern, in touch, socially aware, and progressive, which is unsurprising for a young company the business model of which relies heavily on attracting early adopters. In addition to the #womensday hashtag shown above, multiple posts on their pages celebrate Earth day and encourage users to make the most of their long weekends. Such advertisements combine to present an image of Questrades that much more closely resembles that hip girl you knew in college than an investment firm, and that's no accident.
My Greensceen Questrade Ad
In my greenscreen ad for Questrade below, I attempted to showcase a more obvious example of the fears implicit in many of their ads. By simultaneously presenting potential users with lexical hurdles to decipher and the keys to such decryption, Questrade ads make users feel at once both insecure and hopeful. Ad to this the fact that investing in any capacity actually does have a steep learning curve and many people try their hands - and fail - regularly, and the result is a fostered sense of helplessness primed for Questrade's outstretched hand. This, in a nutshell, is what I've endeavored to depict below.
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References
Birken, E. G. (2021, March 30). Why Women Are Better Investors. Forbes Advisor.
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/investing/woman-better-investors/
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Hughes, R. (2021). “Once you shop, you can’t stop”: Are big-brand companies producing games for girls, or girls themselves? Gender and Education, DOI: 10.1080/09540253.2021.1962517
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Movement, Q. ai-Powering a P. W. (2021, October 25). Women Invest Better But Less — Here’s Why. Forbes.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/qai/2021/10/25/women-invest-better-but-less---heres-why/?
sh=1b499442076c
