Open University Malaysia
Faculty of Science and Technology
SBSF1103
Thinking Skills and Problem Solving
Name: Adam Khaleel
Lecturer: Aishath Shifa
Learning Centre: Villa College
Trimester: May 2012
Contents
Executive Summary
This essay mainly focuses on critical analysis of an advertisement picture selected for an introductory activity for a topic of “A new mobile internet package” to an audience. The description of the audience and picture and the justification on how the topic is related to the audience and picture are given. In addition to this some ideas to enhance the creative thinking of the audience are given based on the critical analysis of the selected picture. Finally, a conclusion of the assay is included and few recommendations are given to the people who have created the selected picture.
A New Mobile Internet Package
The critical thinking skills are very important to enhance our creative thinking ability in today’s competitive world. According to Haskins, G. R. (n.d.), Critical thinking is “A process by which we use our knowledge and intelligence to effectively arrive at the most reasonable and justifiable positions on issues”. According to Bloom, B. (1956), “Creative thinking involves creating something new or original”. The purpose of this assay is to learn how to analyze a picture critically and develop creative thinking of an audience. This assay will mainly talk about, firstly the description of the selected picture advertisement and its audience. Secondly the justification on how this picture and audience are relevant to the topic will be given. Thirdly a comprehensive critical analysis of the picture will be given. Fourthly, some ideas will be demonstrated to enhance creative thinking of the audience with the use of the picture selected. Finally, a conclusion with some recommendations will be given.
GB pack (Image). (n.d.). Retrieved June 01, 2012, from http://www.dhiraagu.com.mv/mobile/mobile_internet/gb_pack.php
The audience of this picture is all Maldivians including all age groups from both sexes because most of them are using the mobile phones. The Maldivians or the audience is having a unique culture and most of the time uses Dhivehi language for communication. The majority of the audience is Sunni Muslims and most of them are literate. The audience has no different races but they are dispersed in different areas of the country and have different dialects.
The picture shows a man who is carrying a big green watermelon and a girl who is carrying a big hand bag. It seems that both of them are teenagers who wore jeans and t-shirts and are very happy about something happened to them. It shows a big red colour circle mentioning a phrase “I like it BIG!” and the word BIG is in yellow colour. It shows some information about the mobile internet like how to SMS to get the GB pack and it shows 1 GB is worth for160 Rufiyaa. It also mentions that this is a newly introduced package and the black colour desktop screen shows an internet access.
The topic “A New Mobile Internet Package” is very much related to the above picture and audience due to the following reasons. The picture shows a word “New” which means this is a newly introduced package for the audience and it mentions that this package is for mobile customers. In addition to this, the picture is highly attractive to the audience because it shows a big watermelon, big hand bag, and a big red circle mentioning the word “BIG” in a different colour. The audience or the customers cannot ignore the picture and will be persuaded to see the picture in detail.
D’Souza, S (2010) has found some ideas about the critical analysis of picture advertisements and these ideas are used in this critical analysis. It has revealed some positive things after the critical analysis of the above picture. The picture advertisement gets the audience attraction easily. People will be tempted to see the picture in detail. Audience will be curious to know why the man is carrying a big watermelon and why the girl is carrying a big bag. The audience will also need to know the meaning of the phrase “I like it BIG!” As a result the audience will be more attractive to this picture.
The main message is very clearly revealed from the picture. It shows that the watermelon carrying by the man is extremely large and we are not able to get that size watermelon in Maldives that can be consumed by many people. Meantime the hand bag carrying by the girl is also extremely large and it can store more items in it. The blue colour background is the sky and the red colour circle is the sun surrounding with the white colour is the sun rays. It shows that the sun is become larger than its normal size. This means that mobile internet package became bigger and can have many advantage from it.
It shows very positive feeling from the picture. The picture shows a young man and a young girl who are worn jeans and t-shirt. They seem that both of them are extremely happy about something very special happened to them. As a result audience will be more excited to see the picture.
The picture shows the connection quality of the GB pack. It shows that the both man and girl are happy at a same time and the man is following the girl continuously which means it shows not only the mobile internet package size but also the quality of the connectivity or the signal strength. As a result audience will feel more persuade to use the package.
The picture shows some other important information as well. It shows how to SMS to subscribe the package and the price of the package. This information is very important to the audience to decide whether to purchase the package or not.
However, the picture revealed more negative things compared to the positive things. The picture advertisement does not show the supplier of the service providing. The brand name or logo is not included in the picture. It is not sure whether the picture is from Wataniya or Dhiraagu. As a result the competitor can take advantage and it will create negative image to the company.
It shows that the advertisement is aimed for teenagers only. It seems both the man and the lady are teenagers and no other age group is shown in the picture but the mobile internet is used by other age groups as well. As a result this advertisement might not reach to the all targeted audience resulting advertisement failure.
The picture does not include other necessary information. It does not have any contact number and address of the supplier. The customers or the audience will not be able to contact the supplier to get necessary information about the package. If there are more suppliers, the audience will not be interested to get the contact number because that will waste their time. As a result the advertisement will not be effective and sometimes it may fail.
The picture uses the romance and sex appeal technique to attract the audience. The girl’s dress will not be accepted by some part of the society because the Maldives is 100% Muslim nation. This might create a bad image to the company as a result the advertisement will be ineffective.
The advertisement is more persuasive and misleading. It contains less information and tries to persuade the audience by using different techniques such as romance and sex appeal. The audience will not be able to get the true information about the service as a result they could waste money and time.
The watermelon is a perishable item which is easily damaged in a short period. It means that the GB package cannot be used for a long period. As a result some customer might not buy the package and may go for other packages.
Therefore it is important to think outside the picture to find some creative ideas to improve this picture. Firstly, it is understood that the picture is more persuasive and misleading. The negative effects can be minimized by providing more realistic information. The watermelon is too big and it is not possible to get that size watermelon in Maldives. Hence changing the watermelon to more realistic size will create more effective image. In addition to this it is not clear the duration of this package. The duration is important information to include in the picture to avoid confusion. So, this is a kind of changing the process of persuasive to informative which will minimize the misleading and confusion.
Secondly, it is understood that the picture is not considering the society and cultural view. It would more effective and attractive if the man and girl wear a cultural or Islamic dress instead of wearing western style clothes. The girl can wear veil and the man can wear cultural dress. It will show good image to the children and our traditional dress can become more popular. This is a kind of taking a new approach which will result creation of good reputation of the company.
Thirdly, it has no brand name or logo of the company. If the logo or brand name is included in the picture, it will be easier to identify the supplier. Dhiraagu has a logo which shows a kind of open hand. If the logo is put into the red circle it will be very easy to identify the supplier in the first glance. It will show how strong the brand name is and how creative they are. This is a kind of searching for new use for existing thing. As a result it will create good corporate image and the competitor will not be able to take advantage from the picture.
Fourthly, the picture seems that both the man and girl are teenagers. If the picture includes people from different age group will show totally a different picture. It can show a school kid and an old man or lady to show the picture is for all the age groups because today mobile phones are used by all age groups. This is a kind of coming up with something new will result high chance of accepting the picture and will increase the sale of GB packages.
Fifthly, the picture shows a big watermelon and a big hand bag. If one of them changed to a big mobile phone, definitely the attraction will be high hence people will wonder why he or she is carrying a big mobile in this technological world. The mobile phone is very much related to this picture because the package is for the mobile internet only. It is very clearly says “Mobile internet just got BIGGER” hence a big mobile will be more suitable to this picture to get audience attraction. So, this is a kind of innovation which will improve the quality of the picture.
Lastly, the picture does not have other relevant information which must be provided. Even though the advertisement is persuasive the picture should include the contact number and address of the supplier. If the picture includes this information it will help to contact and visit the supplier to get more information about the service provided. This is a kind of improving on existing things which will help to identify the potential customers and the sales of the GB package can be increased.
The following picture shows how the creative thinking can be applied to the original picture.
In conclusion, this essay described the audience and selected picture by giving a topic to the audience. It has justified how the topic is relevant to the audience and the picture. In addition to this, a critical analysis has revealed some positive and negative features of the picture selected and it is understood that the picture is more persuasive. Finally, some ideas have been presented to enhance the creative thinking of the audience based on the critical analysis of the picture selected.
At last, it is recommended to consider the following information before preparing a picture for any purpose. Dr. Kantilal, H. K., Dr. Espira, A (2011, P.115-117) has found the characteristics like clarity, accuracy, relevance, consistency, logical correctness, completeness, fairness etc which are important for critical thinking. Meantime, Woodcock, B (n.d.) has found “the lateral thinking is very important in careers such as advertising, marketing, the media and art and design”. In addition to this, Fern, E. J., Liberzon, V (2005) has found “It is not enough to think outside the box. We must learn to live outside the box”.
References
Bloom, B. (1956). Critical and Creative Thinking - Bloom's Taxonomy. Critical Thinking. Retrieved June 02, 2012, from http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic69.htm
D’Souza, S. (2010). Intel’s advertisements. A critical analysis of 5 ads. Retrieved June 01, 2012, from http://www.scribd.com/doc/36951757/Intel-Advertisements-Critical-Analysis
Dr. Kantilal, H. K., Dr. Espira, A. (2011, P.115-117). Thinking skills and problem solving. Eight characteristics of critical thinking. Malaysia, Meteor Doc Sdn Bhd.
Fern, E. J., Liberzon, V. (2005). Finding opportunities in problems. The biggest risk (PowerPoint slides no.49). Retrieved June 01, 2012, from http://www.google.mv/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=Edward+J.+Fern+and+Vladimir+Liberzon&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CE4QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.spiderproject.ru%2Flibrary%2Ffo.ppt&ei=yKnMT5LpKa6YiAeT9827Bg&usg=AFQjCNGSh5KK0Ia44Jem48RU4a8P8wc7CQ&cad=rja
GB pack (Image). (n.d.). Retrieved June 01, 2012, from http://www.dhiraagu.com.mv/mobile/mobile_internet/gb_pack.php
Haskins, G. R. (n.d.). A practical guide to critical thinking. Introduction. Retrieved June 02, 2012, from http://www.skepdic.com/essays/Haskins.html
Woodcock, B. (n.d.). Lateral thinking skills. Retrieved June 01, 2012, from http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sk/lateral.htm
Appendix-1
The Picture Selected for this assignment is shown below;
GB pack (Image). (n.d.). Retrieved June 01, 2012, from http://www.dhiraagu.com.mv/mobile/mobile_internet/gb_pack.php
Appendix-2
The ideas from the following critical analysis of the picture are taken for this assignment.
D’Souza, S. (2010). Intel’s advertisements. A critical analysis of 5 ads. Retrieved June 01, 2012, from http://www.scribd.com/doc/36951757/Intel-Advertisements-Critical-Analysis
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.