Visual Analysis Summary

My essay analyzes a Geek Squad advertisement.  The focus of the visual analysis I essay is to explore the ad’s key implicit messages and its cultural references.  The explicit message of the ad is of course to call Geek Squad for any and all technological mishaps.  However, the ad’s implicit message is more complex.  Geek Squad implies through the ad’s hyperbolic language essentially the message that computers are complicated; possibly even maliciously so.  The prolific simile that compares technology to giant creatures drives the implicit message into consumers, in that it inflates its complexity.  Instead of hooking up a few wires, Geek Squad “agents” are literally taking on a mammoth task.  The targeted market of the ad is most prominently computer owners, the affluent sectors of society.  Within this market, Geek Squad looks to your Average Joe computer user, not the real computer geeks.  The ad’s location, appearing in Rolling Stone magazine, tells us that there is a younger component of the company’s customer base, possibly young professionals who do not have the time or patience to set up their own wireless networks.  Finally, why did Geek Squad market its product in this method?  The ad’s humor is certainly eye-catching, and the hyperbolic diction keeps readers on the ad long enough to get to the implicit message.

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