Post your photos here. With a brief comment about the way you think it works to convince. Things to think about: What is the intended audience of this advertisement? What is its tone? Does it make use of any metaphors? What visual strategies does it employ?
16 thoughts on “Rhetorical Strategies at Work in Advertisements”
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http://static.skepticalscience.com/pics/environmental-ad.jpg
I found an advertisement for climate change. The ad’s intended audience is everyone, as climate change affects the whole world and everybody’s future. The ad depicts a visual representation of an arctic habitat as well as an urban city. The hourglass encompassing the arctic and the city works in sync with the words shown in the ad “we are running out of time act now before it’s too late.” Opposed to there being sand in the hourglass, water is found. The water is slowly dripping from the arctic down into the city, causing the city to slowly overflow. When the audience sees this ad I believe a sense of urgency and awareness is evoked. Most people are aware of climate change but fail to realize that animals and their ecosystems aren’t the only ones that are suffering. Looking at this ad creates a sense of realization, just because climate change isn’t affecting a specific city or group of people now does not mean that it won’t happen within time. Another thing I noticed that may have just been a coincidence is that the cars in the city are all driving away from where the water is gathering. The cars are driving away from the water as if avoiding the problem as large but regardless of how far they stray away from the water it will eventually catch up to them.
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This is an ad I have repeatedly seen on the subway. It is basically selling the idea that the only way for a woman to be happy with the way she looks is if she invests $3,900 for a Breast Augmentation. The women holding 2 small fruits against her chest (representing small breasts) is seen with an unsatisfied and upset facial expression. The second picture shows the same women holding two larger fruits against her chest (representing larger breasts) and has a huge smile across her face. This ad is clearly targeting women and telling them they should not settle to have small breasts, but should invest a large amount of money for a surgery that will help them get the breasts society considers attractive. The fruits stand as a metaphor for breast size (because using fruits to represent a women’s breast size is definitely justifiable and less degrading) and the purpose of them is clear when looking at the ad. There are many different variations of this same ad that have been put up all over New York City subways and they all have the same degrading tone to them (some with a women’s head completely cut off from the picture and just her chest exposed and some with a shirtless women with the words “BIG” written across her chest). I have gradually been seeing less and less, probably because of the controversy they were starting to cause (notice the sticker stuck on the ad that says “THIS INSULTS WOMEN AND PISSES US OFF”).
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This is a subway advertisement for John Jay College City University of New York. Its target audience is students, especially students interested in pursuing a law degree. It is working effectively to lure students to gain a law degree only at John Jay College through its effective use of rhetorical techniques.
Firstly, it makes good use of pun. It cleverly interchanges the words right and write as puns which are interesting to the audience.
Secondly, this ad convincingly leads a lasting impression on its audience because it uses short catchy phrases like “right the wrongs” instead of long verbose sentences.
Another way it catches the eye is by emphasizing on the name of the college, John Jay and that John Jay can give you the education that “any other college cannot give” thus giving the subtle message that John Jay is on a higher pedestal than any other college offering a law program which makes it convincing to its audience.
Moreover, it uses the colors blue and white which are easy to read instead of bright colors that are blinding to the eye.
Apart from that, the ad makes use of a simple easy-to-read font style with a large font size to easily catch the eye and uses the powerful personal pronoun “you” to draw its audience in.
REPLY TO ANITA’s BLOG POST
I really like your choice of advertisement because I too have seen such degrading ads in subways. I strongly agree that they are demeaning to women but they way they’ve been portrayed, with the rhetorical techniques you talked about, are admittedly effective in drawing audiences in.
http://www.endlesssimmer.com/2012/06/15/top-10-reasons-to-drink-craft-beer/coors-light-mountains/
This advertisement is for Coors Light beer. Coors Light uses the phrase “as cold as the rockies”. They use this to appeal cold beer to the customers. The mountains on the can turn blue when the can gets cold enough. The slogan in this particular ad plays off of that by saying give HEAT the Cold shoulder. They again try to appeal the customers with cold beer. The beer bottle in the picture is a frosty cold bottle with ice all over it. They use the rocky mountains to portray the coldness of beer.
http://tobacco.stanford.edu/tobacco_main/images.php?token2=fm_st001.php&token1=fm_img0002.php&theme_file=fm_mt001.php&theme_name=Doctors%20Smoking&subtheme_name=More%20Doctors%20Smoke%20Camels
This Advertisement is for Camel cigarettes. Camel try’s to convey the message to consumers that Camel cigarette is the most popular brand for doctors to smoke. This tells the consumer that it is okay for someone to smoke if your doctor is smoking. The advertisement is also implying that they are the best cigarette brand because of the fact that the majority of doctors buy Camel and to avoid the other cigarette companies because they do not have the majority of doctors smoking.
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This is an advertisement for Pepsi. Although they don’t show the brand of the other can, it’s clear that it is a coke can. They use the straw stopping itself from going into the can of the coke to show that Coke is bad and Pepsi is good. The light colors used makes the product look more light and happy instead of unhealthy and dark.
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http://www.imagemme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/CAS.01-02.png
I see this advertisement frequently on the subway and it is for casper mattresses. They have many other ads but in each of them the main goal of course is to get you to buy their mattresses at some point. They try to make ads that can apply to everyone and sometimes the throw in the occasional joke by putting animals or inanimate objects in and portray them as humans. The audience these ads target are the everyday subway rider and because there is no set type of subway rider they try to make ads that everyone can relate to. They use all different types of colors, but usually they are a light or soft version of these major colors. The company logo color itself is blue, which is the color of Trust and Strength which something they’d like o convey with their mattresses. The ad doesn’t us metaphors with its words but rather when you take its words and look at the picture it uses.
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I think this is a very convincing advertisement. The ad projects a picture of an ice cream cone, but the ice cream is in the shape of an actual human heart. The heart is melting in the same way ice cream can melt. That shows that it is deteriorating. The caption on the bottom says, “Don’t treat Diabetes to your heart. People with diabetes are two to four times likely to get heart disease. So, visit your doctor regularly and prevent Heart diseases.” The intended audience for this advertisement is people with diabetes, people with heart disease, and also, people who have neither! The tone is very serious because it brings up a very serious matter which is bad health. People don’t need to be obese/overweight to be diagnosed with heart disease or diabetes. It helps to stay fit, but even people who aren’t overweight can get heart disease or diabetes. The visual art shows the seriousness of the matter. I think that this ad is a very convincing ad!
REPLY TO JORDANS POST
Jordan used the ad for Camel cigarettes. This ad was useful in providing people with an illusion that cigarettes are good. By promoting the fact that doctors smoke Camels it causes the general population to believe that Camels are good for you because doctors smoke them, so if a cigarette brand must be chosen it should be Camels. The slogan strays away from the fact that cigarettes are bad as a whole but rather focus on statement that all cigarettes that aren’t Camel are bad.
The picture that I have is an advertisement for a guitar luthier expo that is taking place next week. For some odd reason, I am not able to upload my picture on this blog post at all so I emailed it to you. This advertisement was posted on a wall of a high end boutique guitar shop in Soho, New York. First of all, one is able to realize the target audience of the advertisement just by the fact that the poster is in a guitar shop, more specifically a high end shop. That same day, I also visited Guitar Center and Sam Ash, two music store franchises that cater to all price levels, and this advertisement was nowhere to be found. As mentioned earlier, clearly the target audience is primarily the upper class, and especially, musicians that are skilled enough to have the confidence to spend time at a high end guitar shop. This is because a luthier is a person that creates custom guitars for a specific client. Therefore, if beginner musicians were targeted, no one would be buying at the festival, and the dealers would have their time wasted by inexperienced questions and handling of the instruments. The advertisement itself is beautifully designed as well, featuring a copy of a print of a hand-drawn scenario of a luthier showcasing his guitar to two customers. This image embodies a welcoming tone, one that almost reels you in to the event. This is done by using a master of a craft, taking the time to explain his work to interested and happy clients.
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The intended audience for this ad is anyone that is looking to get a new computer. Apple shows a PC as a sick person that is dressed poorly and looks over weight. While a mac is a well dressed person and Im pretty sure is an actor. They do this to show that mac is apparently better than a PC. The ad basically says not to upgrade to Vista because it “sucks” and says a solution which is to to get a mac instead.
https://files1.coloribus.com/files/adsarchive/part_1827/18276605/file/anti-smoking-mutation-600-93472.jpg
The ad linked above creates a mood by the cold colors. Cold colors naturally mean unwelcoming. While majority of the advertisement is desaturated, the one thing that remains saturated is the mutation that is growing on the cigarette. The mutation does not actually grow on the cigarette but it’s metaphorical for what happens in your lungs or wherever else it happens in your body. The reason why the mutation is on the cigarette is to help the audience build a more direct connection to the text describing the advertisement and because one can not see the inside of a human being therefore, portraying the mutation on the outside is an easy way to make it visible, and bring the message more directly to light. The statistics also help make it a solid fact which helps create a daunting message. It uses keywords in the quote like Cigarette, Smoke, Mutation, and Cancer. These words help etch a memory in your head therefore, making the advertisement effective.
I like Joe’s post about the ice cream cone. I feel like it’s similar to mine in the way that it externalizes the message and makes it visual.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/6c/84/52/6c8452f146780eaad99ea63c1c829e44.jpg
The link above is an advertisement for light beer. I feel this is a general ad since there’s no specific brand being advertised here. In the advertisement it has a play on two different items beer and a light bulb. Putting the use of light in light bulb and beer together. But also another thing to think about they might also be saying light beer is the better choice. In shows and movies people tend to but a light bulb next to a character head when they get a bright idea. So this ad can influence people to go with light beer. The intended audience are people that drink beer. The ad used pun to attract people
https://d1uvxqwmcz8fl1.cloudfront.net/tes/resources/6147026/9dcf9997-c2ca-4f8c-a0f8-b6dd7369550d/image?width=500&height=500&version=1323024467000
I choose a advertisement for smoking.I believe this is a great advertisement, it compares a gun to a cigarette, and shows thats smoking kills about 106,000 in the UK alone.The ad is intended for a very broad audience, it can relate to everyone,kids to elder,non smokers to smokers.The ad has a very dark and gloomy tone, it intends to scare the audience from smoking by showing that when you smoke you are literally shooting your self because 90% of male lung cancer patients develop their disease because of smoking.
REPLY TO DANIELA
I really liked this ad because it does a very good job of visually showing how negatively climate change is quickly changing our environment. The lower half, with the cars driving in into the distance is almost representative of how people in general are neglecting the seriousness of the issue.