TOW #19: Visa's Olympic Commercial

Visa is known for producing multiple commercials during the Olympics to announce their support for Team USA and broadcast their services, amongst these commercials is one featuring Sarah Hendrickson that seems to stand out due to the incorporation of historical context and representation of a new event. The commercial opens with a quote from Amelia Earhart about women accomplishing that of man and that failure should be used as inspiration. While this quotation is being read in the background, Sarah Hendrickson prepares for her ski jump; this year was the premier of female ski jumping as an Olympic sport. By incorporating the historically recognized story of Amelia Earhart, Visa is appealing to not only fans of women’s ski jumping, but anyone that supports equality among genders and female athleticism. This approach causes a larger audience to be drawn into the advertisement. Immediately following the quote, Hendrickson executes her jump therefore appealing to any ski jump or Olympic enthusiast and thus broadening the audience even further. During her time in the air, Hendrickson states, “Now women get a chance to fly” which connects back to Amelia Earhart solidifying the use of her quote and proving its relevance. At the end of the commercial she said, “This is my everywhere. Visa, everywhere you want to be” the famous line that concludes all of Visa’s Olympic advertisements. This line illustrates that Visa is an international financial service corporation and an excellent choice as a credit card service. Majority of the commercial is focused on presenting the new Olympic event and the fact that Visa is a sponsor of the Olympics to draw attention from the audience. At the conclusion of the advertisement Visa presents itself as an international credit card that Olympic athletes that are constantly travelling around the world trust. It is through the development of a large audience and presentation of the desirable aspects of Visa’s company that Visa is able to effectively market their services.

TOW #18: With Death Penalty

Due to our recent focus on argument pieces, I chose to read an article sharing a perspective on the controversial topic of the death penalty. The author of “With Death Penalty, Let Punishment Truly Fit the Crime”, Robert Blecker, argues that death by legal injection is unjust, these horrific criminals should be punished by much more extreme means, gunfire, to adequately create moral equilibrium. He argues this point by using current events and rhetorical questions to appeal to pathos and sway the audience to see his viewpoint. In regards to the terrible murderers existing in today’s society Blecker offers current events such as the Boston Marathon bombing and shooting in the movie theater in Aurora. By using such well-known and fairly current tragedies he is able to appeal to the audiences emotions and using extreme circumstances to justify his radical argument. Using rhetorical questions to test the validity of people who claim to desire punishment that fits the crime is also effective by putting ideas into reality. Many people would agree that punishment should be dependent on the severity of the crime, but Blecker twists this into saying that life imprisonment does not allow for variation once crimes reach a certain level of horror, therefore no longer fit to the individual crime. Blecker opposes lethal injection and believes that mass murderers and criminals that execute similar crimes should be killed by a firing squad, an extremely radical idea. He argues that lethal injection is too humane in comparison to the crime that the individual committed and that they also should be treated at a harsher level. Petty crimes put people in jail to be abused and possibly killed by a fellow inmate while those on death row comfortably await their execution where they lay on sheets and die by a painless IV-like injections surrounded by family. The description of an often-overlooked unjust system appeals to logos. Blecker finds this system extremely unjust and proposes a radical idea of execution by firing squad. Although he is an extremist, he effectively conveys his message through appeals to pathos and logos.

Article: http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/22/opinion/blecker-death-penalty/

Means of Execution
URL: http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/22/opinion/blecker-death-penalty/

IRB Intro #3: A Story Lately Told

A Story Lately Told is an autobiographical text that describes the upbringing and struggles of award winning actress and director, Anjelica Huston.  This book was published last year and there is one entitled Watch Me, which describes her career and successes.  The book itself is split into three sections: Ireland, London, and New York.  Each section contains the events that happened during her residency in that specific country/city; within each section are multiple chapters that further break down her life events chronologically. At the beginning of each chapter there is a photograph of Huston and other people with a caption of who they are, where the picture was taken, and what year it occurred.  By providing a picture at each chapter it allows the reader to not only read about the transitions in her

life but also see how she changed and how her environment changed. My mother recently purchased this book and it seemed like it would be interesting, especially since it does not idolize her successes, rather her struggles. For my past independent reading books I read a memoir and a research-based book so by reading an autobiography I will be able to capture more aspects of Huston’s life than done in the memoir. I am excited to see what type of struggles she endured and how she overcame them. From reading the back I know that she does not have a strong relationship with her brother, her parents divorced so she does not contact her father very much, and her mother died in a car accident. From that I know all of the major disasters in her life, but I am interested to see what smaller issues will occur throughout her life. I am also excited to see how she will describe her life and hope that I will be able to connect and make an emotional investment in her story,

Anjelica Huston
URL: http://nomoredirtylooks.com/2012/10/sallies-morning-skin-and-hair-routine-exposed/anjelica-huston-at-crimes-and-misdemeanors-1989/

TOW #17: Are Kids Vulnerable?

In the article, Super Bowl Ad Blitz: Are Kids Vulnerable? by James Steyer the author uses inclusive diction and specific examples to prove inform audiences of the dangers presented to youth through advertisements. Steyer uses words such as “we” and “our” throughout the text to establish a common relationship and stance with his audience. This relationship allows his audience to feel that the information he is presenting will impact them and causes them to read the article more attentively and be affected by the author’s purpose more. Since he is trying to inform his readers, mostly parents, that the advertisement mediums have become excessive and dangerous towards the youth it was necessary for him to develop a common ground between him and his audience to make his concerns more personable. The relatable relationship he developed allowed the message to be more effective. Specific examples were also used to establish the dangers involved in modern means of advertising. He included examples beyond televisions ads, but those included on Internet games and applications. Today, companies are able to follow Internet activity in order to include ads that best connect to the individual; often, teenage girls receive weight-loss ads, which can be very insulting and damaging to their self-esteem. Situations such as this can negatively impact the consumer emotionally, especially the vulnerable youth. Steyer also includes the endless influence of advertisements because television is no longer the only medium for advertisements; children and teenagers are constantly faced with advertisements on popular social media cites, games, and the television. This specific evidence appeals to the logical side of his purpose and provides factual information to support his message that modern advertisement is constant and possibly dangerous towards the youth. He recognizes that it is only possibly dangerous because modern advertising is new and the effects are yet to be discovered.

Article:http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/31/opinion/steyer-ads-children/index.html?hpt=op_t1

Advertising
URL: http://www.damselsinsuccess.com/how-advertising-has-changed-in-the-digital-age/