Reader Test for Blood Shed Advertisement

I interviewed ten students while they read the advertisement.
I interviewed them about the front and back individually, along with the advertisement as a whole. For word count's sake I will only share the stats for the advertisement as a whole. (Use the photos above as a reference to the key areas of the advertisement I am discussing)

50% of the readers jumped around while reading it, 40% skimmed it, and 10% read it from start to finish. This shows that the advertisement is very busy and difficult to read from start to finish and not all the information presented is being read.

For the most part the ad. was successful at getting its point across though 100% of students would have like more information to be given. 70% claimed the point was to display oppression in Mexico while the other 30% claimed the point was the art that was coming from the oppression.

When asked what was the most clear aspect of the advertisement, 40% said the front side as a whole, 20% the time of the event,20% the woman, 10% the description of repression in Mexico, and the last 10% the text on the front. This leaves 70% of the most clear aspects being on the front which does not give very much information, which is not such a great thing for the success of the advertisement.



When asked what was least clear, 50% said the back as a whole, 10% the text on the front, 10% the reception information, 10% the yellow corn background, and the last10% the + symbols on the back. This shows that 70% of the most unclear points are on the back of the advertisement, which has the most information and should be the most clear.

On a scale of 1-10 (1 is worst, 10 is best), students ranked the clarity, effectiveness, and how drawn they felt to attend the event. The clarity received a 6.4 average with a low of 3 and a high of 8. Which displays that the advertisement is barely clear enough for the reader. It gets by but should be clearer. Effectiveness received an average of 6.4 as well with the same high and low. Again this flyer is barely effective enough. For feeling drawn to attend the event, the low was 3 and the high 10, with an average of 6.75. This shows that the event will attract some people but will not attract many from the advertisement. This is only considering the people that have read the advertisement alone. There are other ways to hear about the event and thus more people will probably go.

I also asked the students to describe in one word the emotion that they felt while reading this advertisement. 40% said indifferent, 30% intrigued, 10% worry, 10% troubled, and the last 10% concerned. This shows that about a third of the readers felt a negative emotion from reading the advertisement, but one that the author may have intended. 70% however did not feel a strong emotional feeling for the people involved with the repression.

The results from the student readers show that this advertisement is moderately effective and clear. It barely gets by. The author should have spent a little more time considering how well some of these advertising methods would work.

In the Name of the Blood Shed

Audience:
Students and faculty around campus, specifically RCAH students and faculty.

Purpose:
The purpose is to advertise an art showing in the Lookout! Gallery, featuring pieces about resistance and repression in Mexico.

Summary:
The front of this, two sided, post-card styled advertisement, has a woman with a red scarf around her mouth standing in front of a background of drawn corn. The back tells who the featured artists are and when the event takes place.

Center of Gravity and Points of Eye Catching Interest:
The red scarf around the woman's mouth on the front of this ad is the first image that caught my eye. My eye then quickly jumped to the yellow corn back ground. I then go on to read the text on the front and view and ponder the woman and what she has to do with blood shed. She looks poor, yet strong. The way she is portrayed with the colors hints that she may be the one whose blood is in danger of being shed. She also appears to be carrying something. Is it a baby or sack with something in it? I am not sure and this is not clarified later in the text at all. The text however hints that she may be a minority in Mexico and may be the one resiting and repressing. She definitely revokes pity, concern, and curiosity. She makes me want to flip the ad over to see if there is more information on the back. When there is, i want to read and find out who she is. When i do flip to the back i immediately see in bold red and almost grafiti style writing "Blood Shed" and "March 02-28". I immediately understand there is an event of sorts about this blood shed and who the mystery woman represents. Bold, bright, and green is the word "Mexico", which then tells me the woman represents a people group in Mexico, and gives me a better understanding of who this woman is. I read on to discover that this ad is for an art show about the blood shed in Mexico and the resistance. Human nature makes us inclined to find despair and violence intriguing. This ad discusses despair and violence in Mexico particularly involving the blood shed and resistance. Thus it grabbed my attention and curiosity.

Does It Work?
Initially this ad is very successful. It controls the order the reader reads very well. It does so in a way that effectively intrigues the reader and makes him or her want to read on and participate in this event. The author seems to have an understanding of the order in which the eye recognizes colors. Red is the first color in which the eye sees. The red scarf on the front attracts the eye to the woman which is the main point of intrigue and wonder. Then the eye notices yellow and in this case that would be the corn background, which adds to the interpretation of the woman, being from a more rural community. On the back the reader notices the main points early on, they are a blood red color, the topic of the event, and when it is happening. Also a little bit of information about the mystery woman is revealed but not enough to satisfy the reader. This works and doesn't work. It works because it leaves the reader wanting more information, which can only be obtained by attending the event. It doesn't work because not enough information is given and some readers may simply blow off their intrigue and move on. It does get the reader to read it and possibly attend the advertised event, making it a successful advertisement.

What I Would Change:
I would tell the author to give the reader more information about the artwork. I feel as though the the blood shed in Mexico isn't really explained in the text. The parties involved in this conflict are not given. This would be beneficial to the text to include, because it helps the reader connect, if they know who they are meant to be connecting to. Also, if the reader is familiar with these groups they may become more excited about the event, especially if they have a passion for this conflict. This is a successful eye catching piece, it just needs a little more information.