1. Melissa Rubin points out that because of advertising strategies that target a broad audience it helps capture the essence of society at that point in time. The evidence she uses to prove her point is implied, simply because the things she says are backed up by the knowledge the reader possesses. For example she states that mostly men are in the picture and men in the military are highlighted, which targets the "white, male-dominated society in which servicemen and veterans were a numerous and prominent presence." This can easily be backed up by knowledge the average American contains, since it was preached to us throughout our learning years.
2. (Apparently my answer to number one is also an answer for number two, so I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be answering for number one.) As you can see as I answered in number one, her evidence is almost solely backed by historical context, which makes the analysis more sturdy since people have a basic knowledge of the time period they can confirm her facts, and makes her analysis much less arguable.
3. Another question you may answer by analyzing an ad is how do these advertising techniques improve the sales of a product, or how much more likely is someone to buy a product if these techniques are used compared to if they are not.
4. The Geico commercials you see on YouTube are very accurate representations of our era. Usually done by male actors, you see a peek of the ideals of a still male-dominated society, but the first one I think of is the ad that takes place in the elevator. Possibly not on purpose, but a white male is speaking with an African American male, is a bit taller than the African American male. He says "I say savings," and shakes the man's hand. This could be representative of the power that still resides in the white society over minorities, and then the announcer speaks once the men freeze. He says "You can't skip this Geico ad, because it's already over." Before Geico paid so their ads had no skip button period, the skip button came up at this point. This is another example of male power, as he has control over the viewers and they are not allowed to skip the ad. The viewer could walk away from the computer, but the ad is only 15 seconds so it doesn't really make sense to do so. America currently is in a power struggle, between people in the US and with other countries, so this ounce of control makes a big difference. There is also no female in this ad until the very end and she is very rushed. She skips in with her head down, coffee in one hand and phone in the other, and says "two, please." Americans sure love their cellular devices and coffee. She doesn't look up until she doesn't get a response and sees the odd sight of two men frozen still in an elevator. Starting with a naturally submissive gesture and only changing it when something was out of the ordinary, she asks "what's going on," such as the victims of a prank video going viral on YouTube. She looks a bit insecure and nervous, but the button for her floor is never pressed. This can be taken a few ways. It could show the laziness residing in the American society, or you can take a completely misogynistic view and say that a woman needs a man to do everything for her. Either way it is revealing about not only the society, but the views of the society from person to person.
What I thought was extremely interesting is there is an "extended cut" of this advertisement, where the woman's head is up, she asks more and more about what is going on, and when they don't answer she seems bossy and almost rude, saying she'll just "do it myself." She walks around them with a disturbed and almost disgusted facial expression, and presses the button. The elevator closes, and when it opens on her floor her expression turns to freaked out as the men still stand frozen, possibly referring back to the idea that women seem lost and confused without the guidance of men. Interesting how the first 30 seconds - how long the advertisement probably would have been if it was on TV, doesn't have this message of gender inequality, but both the final versions do.
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