For this essay, you are to consider the ways in which visual and verbal content, rhetorical context, and appeals work together in an advertisement to create an argument.
In our digital era, one in which Americans find themselves connected to devices for 10 hours a dayLinks to an external site., we are bombarded with advertising. We have gone from being exposed to about 500 ads a day back in the ’70s to about 5,000Links to an external site. today. Advertisements do more than persuade us to purchase products. They play a significant role in development of gender roles and norms, body image standards, and desire generally. The extent to which desire determines our consciousness is vast, and ads are an essential part of our existence in this day and age. You may not need a new iPhone, but advertisers work hard to make you desire one.
Advertisers spend much in terms of time and money in developing advertisements that not only sell products, but change the way we look at ourselves and our role in the world. However, consumers spend very little time considering the strategies and practices advertisers use. In fact, most of us passively consume whatever comes our way, not asking questions. Often times those who do are accused of “reading too much into things,” or “over-analyzing” that which seems to be a “basic” part of our everyday reality. But nothing is a “basic” part of our everyday reality. In a democratic society, it is essential that we consumer-citizens are informed, equipped with the tools necessary to think critically about products and the world we live in, especially as our oceans fill with plastic and landfills overflow thanks to single-use plastics and grocery bags.
For this assignment, you are to choose one advertisement/text/video and provide a rhetorical analysis. Then, drawing on the principles of rhetorical analysis discussed in the reading from this week’s module, compose an analysis that examines the text’s use of rhetorical appeals in light of the rhetorical situation the ad constructs.
In addition to your knowledge of ethos, logos, and pathos, consider these questions:
• What values, assumptions, and beliefs (ideology) must one possess in order for the ad to be effectively persuasive?
• What key words drive the ad?
• What binaries are presented?
• What are the connotations the ad presents?
• How do the rhetorical appeals function in the ad?
• In what larger social or cultural conversations does the ad participate?
• How is the argument structured? What proof is provided to back up claims?
• What stylistic choices are significant to the effectiveness of the argument?
• How do specific images persuade?
• How does music persuade?