Joel Batz
Rhetorical Analysis of a Campaign Ad
Joe Biden: ‘keep up campaign’ 2020: https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/campaign-ads-2020/joe-biden-keep-up-campaign-2020/2020/08/27/7dff81f0-d141-43bd-95e9-29274fe5c385_video.html
After viewing one of Joe Biden’s campaign ads it is obvious who the ad is aimed towards and the message portrayed. The audience for Joe Biden’s ad are people that are against president Trump, those who care about immigration, and citizen’s who haven’t made up their mind on who to vote for in the November election. I know this because in the beginning of the ad it states about the differences Biden would make to end the chaos of the pandemic, they stated how Biden won’t lay back as a president persuading citizens to vote for him and attacking Trump’s campaign. The ad also shows the audience that Biden cares about immigration and we can see this towards the end of the ad we’re the ad illustrates that Biden cares for immigrants and portrays photos of Biden with people of all different races. The message is obvious. Joe Biden is the total opposite of President Trump, he will “end chaos” caused by the pandemic, he cares about all the people in America no matter their race, gender, etc.
This ad does a very good job when it comes down to evoking emotions, we see this by how the ad is structured. The beginning of the ad starts off strong stating that the U.S. will have to “keep up” when Biden is in office this evokes an emotion of hope that Joe Biden will finally get us out of the pandemic. Towards the middle of the ad it evokes an emotion of inspiration, the ad states that Joe Biden “has been hit hard in life” he lost his wife, daughter, and son, although Biden was hit hard he still got up and never gave up. The ad is mixture of positive and negative, I know this because the ad gives the reader the idea of how Biden will change our nation in a better way if he is elected president which is positive. On the other hand the ad gives the reader the idea that president Trump hasn’t done enough to fight back during the pandemic, which evokes negativity towards Trump’s campaign.
I believe that the visual of the ad is one of the most important contributions to the message. The ad illustrates Biden being active which contributes to the title of the ad “keep up” throughout the ad we see images and videos of Biden spending time and having a good time with all different types of people from all different races. This contributes to the message of the ad, That Biden will be the president that will help all people no matter their race, religion or even if their immigrants. Joe Biden’s ad uses a lot of rhetorical strategies to persuade his audience, for example the ad uses pathos which aims to create certain emotions in your audience. As stated above Biden does this through the visual’s of the ad the background music of the ad and the way the narrator describes Joe Biden. The narrator describes Biden as a man who has been hit hard by life by has gotten up, a man who will fulfill his promises to get this country out of the pandemic which is aimed to create emotions of hope and inspiration in the audience.
I personally believe the ad was successful, the ad did a very great job illustrating the main points and the structure of Biden’s campaign. The ad does a very good job explaining Biden’s background which at the same time aims to create certain emotions towards the audience. Theses are great strategies to convince your audience that you are ethical and can convince many to swing their votes towards Biden.
Joel, We talked about this ad in class a little. One important thing to keep in mind about these ads is that they are often designed in response to criticism that their opponent has leveled against their candidate or to worries that people in their own party have about a candidate. In this case, it’s clear that the ad is trying to address worries that Biden is too old to be president by emphasizing how active he is. We see that throughout the whole first section of the video and in the ad’s title.