Stratification
STEP 1: Select two television ads that are each promoting a different make and model of automobile. Analyze the details in the commercials. What characteristics and priorities do the characters in the ads have? (4 points) Analyze at least one person in each ad.
STEP 2: Using the concepts of social mobility, social closure, and life chances, answer the following questions:
What class statuses do you think are on display?
What aspirations or identities do you think are being appealed to?
To what extent is the viewer being asked to identify with a given social and/or economic status? What is that status?
What does ownership of these particular vehicles presumably signify about these potential customers?
(8 points)
STEP 3: Now, hypothesize a short list of characteristics for a person in each ad that can be inferred from how theyre portrayed in the ads. What do you think they do for a living? What types of statussay, monetary or culturalare associated with that work? How do you imagine their living situation? House? Apartment? What do the ads imply about this persons possible background or future in terms of their status? Do the ads suggest that purchasing this particular car will alter that status in some measurable way?
In addition to analyzing the pitch made in the ads, also be sure to include your own perspective based on your personal experience and observations. What statuses or class-specific lifestyles do you associate with these types of cars? Why? (8 points)
