Buy my stuff!

Buy my stuff!
How do I advertise?

by Esra Üner

In this session, students discuss the influence and the impact of advertisements and influencers. Following the discussion and analysis, they will use their newly gained knowledge to create their own ad. They may create ads for fictitious products or campaigns, deal with a certain product seriously or satirically or with advertising in general.

We all know – advertising surrounds us constantly. But what is it, really?
At times exciting, at times cool, glossy, shiny, dashing, extreme, obnoxious, annoying, boring. Among other things, advertising also practices greenwashing and pinkwashing: Companies and their logos change their appearance depending on the occasion – sometimes they are seemingly concerned about sustainability, sometimes they adorn themselves with the Pride colors. Advertising also adapts the appearance of companies on the occasion of holidays or commemorative days etc. in order to specifically target certain groups of people.

The project Buy my stuff! – How do I advertise? discusses the linguistic and creative, but also the strategic aspects of advertising. Starting with advertising in the classical sense (big companies present their goods), Buy my stuff! also takes newer forms of advertising in consideration: influencers. In their professional work, influencers share their lives and advertise different products, depending on the target group. 

The aim of this project is to critically classify advertising and influencers and to analyze their various visual strategies. Students acquire basic design skills and apply them to create their own ads for imagined products or campaigns (logos, slogans, posters, designs) with the help of the app Canva.

  • Research well-known advertising slogans and subjects (e.g. “Apple – Think Different.”).
  • Research well-known influencers.
  • In a team, collect important criteria for a catchy advertising campaign. (What works well and why? What is annoying and why?).
  • Individually, think of a (fun) ad for an imagined product and/or an imagined influencer campaign. 
  • Design an ad for this product using the Canva app.
The image shows the user interface of an application, on the left a toolbar with sample fonts, in the center other tool icons and the workspace with a poster that features the slogan “No Struggle - We Cuddle” and a close-up photograph of two topless persons hugging each other.
Buy my stuff! – How do I advertise?

Buy my stuff! – Wie mache ich Werbung? © 2022 by Miriam Raggam-Alji is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Esra Üner, studies at the Department Art and Education, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.

Author’s Encouragement
Advertising plays an elementary role in everyday life and accompanies us throughout our lives. By engaging with the Canva platform and digital design in general, the critical analysis of the subject area of advertising and influencers can be easily translated into your own digital graphic products.