Literacy.  To the common man, it is the ability to read or write.  However, literacy in fact is one of the most fundamental necessities to participate and succeed in this country.  According to the National Center for Education Statistics, literacy is “using printed and written information to function in society, to achieve one’s goals and to develop one’s knowledge and potential…illiteracy is the inability to use printed and written information to function in society, achieve one’s goals and to develop one’s knowledge and potential”.  It is important to understand that literacy is not just about being able to read, it is an absolute fundamental requirement in this society from daily life, acquiring a job, visiting a doctor, or voting- reading is prevalent in every part of this country.  Being illiterate means being unable to thrive in this society.  According to the US Department of Education and National Institute of Literacy, 32 million adults in the US can’t read, 14% of the population.  Even further, 21% of adults cannot read below a 5th grade level, and 19% of high school graduates can’t read!  Clearly, there needs to be solutions to combat this issue as it affects a huge amount of Americans.  The first solution, according to Belzer, is to help adult learners separate their literacy experiences in school and adulthood.  “These experience can then become the key to learning as they unlock some deep-held beliefs and convictions about literacy”.  Essentially, through this process, they will discover why they have problems with literacy.  His idea is to develop a literacy autobiography to of their literacy lifetime experiences.  Another idea is to use informative/practical texts to educate the learner which allows them to realize how beneficial literacy is in jobs and society.  These texts should be catered to their interests and help them overcome this obstacle.  According to Earl, using incentives in adult learning is crucial in regard to literacy.  Providing rewards increases their motivation to read and write.

For this marketing task, it was apparent that the target audience needed to be the literate portion of society for multiple reasons.  First, it is important to change the public mindset of illiteracy being a taboo subject and thus discouraging those who are illiterate to refrain from speaking up about their inability.  Second, those who might know of someone who is illiterate should understand how tremendous of an issue this is in America, and will be encouraged to facilitate the literacy process for that individual.  Finally, our society needs to be educated of how enormous of an issue illiteracy actually is with over 32 million people in our country being classified as illiterate.  With more public outcry and attention, this could lead to more fundraising and legislation to assist the literate cause.

The first step in any process is the education and familiarity of the subject.  Since many people who are illiterate hide their disability from others in shame, this leads to the common misconception that illiteracy is a plague of the past.  Hopefully, this advertisement can resurface those concerns and solve the dilemma of societal opinion on illiteracy.  Also, if anyone who is illiterate is able to see the welcoming and encouragement from the country to become literate, they will be much more willing to take that first step to seek help.  To accomplish this goal, in this advertisement, the target audience is being persuaded to visit the website and social media to sign the petition called “32 matters”.  It is doing so by utilizing multiple fallacies and creative “hooking”.  Essentially, the ad is extremely bright and full of eye catching illustrations that state various facts involving the number 32 million.  The ad also lacks any revealing advertising elements such as large logos to deceptively seize the audiences’ unguarded attention.  Many of the facts also involve popular music festivals, gaming, or money which people can easily relate to. The lettering for the music portion is in red, white, and blue to generate emotion for those who love their country and the money portion is written in gold with floating bills.  However, at the very bottom, the audience is suddenly retracted from this fantasy land to the fact that 32 million people are illiterate, with the backdrop of the US flag.

Considering that this advertisement is encouraging users to visit a website to sign a petition, it was clear that the ad should be on an online resource to use the immediate surge of emotion to encourage their click.  I decided that the best website to place my advertisement in would be foxnews.com because conservatives have a deep seeded pride in their country and thus resonate with the message.  Fox news is a growing news website with 332 million visits a month and about 90% of visitors being from the United States.  They also have consistently been addressing the illiteracy epidemic in their news articles and have high feedback from users.  Keeping the goal in mind, people who read political news daily will more likely go out of their way to sign a petition to voice their opinions as opposed to a tabloid.  Fox News also has a great advertising program with the ads being easily visible throughout articles which should garner their attention.