Ad Comparison Essay

There are many techniques that advertisements share when trying to get a customer to notice it. There are also a lot of differences that must be made in order to remain unique, due to laws as well as a desire to stand out. Ford and Hankook are no different. When advertising tires, they share a lot of similarities as well as maintaining a large amount of differences

The first advertisement being analyzed is by Ford. The picture shows a tire that is somewhat attached to an octopus. Initially the eye focuses on the octopus’s eye, then follows to the tire. It then follows the tentacles around to the bright sky, which leads down to the road. As the eye follows the road back to the octopus, it notices that the pavement is wet. Finally, the eye catches

Firstly, they both use a form of comparison to say that the company’s tires have a strong grip. The Ford picture shows the tire as an octopus, and in saying that, they are saying that their tires will grip the road very well in the way that an octopus would. The Hankook image shows a team of people with ice climbing axes. This tells the customer that the tires will stay on the road during the winter as if it were held to it by a team of ice climbers. Another similarity between the two advertisements is that they both rely on the customer’s ability to understand the message that is being conveyed. They are both dependent upon the fact that the viewer knows that the thing being compared to is good at grasping. With the Ford advertisement, the customer must know that an octopus has good grip. Without that knowledge, the picture would not make sense. In the Hankook advertisement, the customer needs to be aware that ice climbing axes are used to grip ice. Without this knowledge, the customer would not understand that the image is saying that the tires will grip the road well during the winter. Both advertisements also show less than ideal driving weather. While the Ford image shows much better weather, and much more of the scene, it is still displaying a rainy wet day, without a lot of the sunshine. The Hankook picture in turn shows a very windy snowy environment. Both also, most likely unintentionally, utilize the rhetorical

Starting with the fact that the Hankook tires are being advertised as specifically winter tires and the Ford tires are being advertised as having good grip regardless of weather. Another difference is that the Ford advertisement has a caption, while the Hankook advertisement only has the brand name and logo. The Ford image uses the light to continue redirecting the eye’s attention back to the octopus tire, and the other parts are darker than the road and octopus. The Hankook picture is very dark all around. It uses the darkness to highlight the faces of a few people. This leads the customer to look closer and then finally realize that the entire tire is people holding ice climbing axes. Another difference is in the writing, or in Hankook’s case, lack-thereof. Ford uses a memorable caption to make the advertisement stick in the memories of the customer, and follows it with a small message that clearly conveys the aspect of their tires that they meant to display, finally finishing with a website that one could visit to get more information. Hankook, however, relies more on brand recognition. The advertisement shows us simply that Hankook tires are reliable in winter weather, and assumes that the customer will remember this. There is not even a website that the customer could visit to get more information, simply the Hankook brand logo. Another difference is the point of view. The Ford advertisement displays the