Advertisements drive people crazy. It's a fact. There in no one who will stand up and say "I like ads". A few may make us smile and feel warm inside, but the vast majority are designed to hammer a message into our heads. In the time between the 50's and the 70's advertising companies would use "jingles" and like LSD never completely disappear. Since the dot-com explosion advertising has become both better and worse. Programs such as google have made ads unobtrusive, even helpful; Spam is the counterbalance. Ads in magazines have been around almost as ling as the magazines have, such as the one I am going to comment on. This is an ad from Parenting, on why people should buy Nutella. It makes use of stereotypes, image identification and logical and pathetic appeals.

   This advertisement uses the stereotypes of the (single or stay-at-home) mother making breakfast, happy smiling children and healthy "balanced" breakfast. The single or stay at home stereotype is identified in this ad by 1. The hair colour 2. Clothing 3. Lack of cleavage 4. Holding a child 5. Spotless kitchen. This stereotype is used to target other single/stay-at-home mothers and to say that Nutella makes breakfast easy. The second stereotype is the happy smiling children. This ad uses this stereotype in order to portray Nutella as the cause of the happiness. The last stereotype is the myth of the "Balanced Breakfast." The reason for using this is to create the illusion that Nutella is a part of a balanced breakfast or even that Nutella can be a part of one.

Advertising companies create connections between one  (negative) product and one (positive) product. Nutella is obviously unhealthy, but it is put on whole grain bread, thereby making it "healthy." It is implied that Nutella is good for you. Plates of fruit cover most of the table, the rest being covered by cups of milk and orange juice. Nutella is also used to signify that making breakfast can be simple and easy. The image of a clean kitchen seems to be connected the fact that using Nutella on bread does not require cooking: no cleaning. The woman's hair and makeup are styled perfectly, as are the children's. Hence the fast part of making breakfast.

This ad makes use of strange mental links called "keywords." It makes use of several words: unique, wholesome, roasted, nutritious, delicious flavor, tasty, good. These all try to paint Nutella in a positive light. A few of the other text tricks are the use of numbers to confuse the reader and the ingredients are "high quality" ingredients. It also mentions a lack of artificial preservatives.