Political Advertisements vs. Consumer Advertisements

When I was analyzing Nike advertisements the thing I noticed that occurred in most of them was that they were using pathos to connect to your emotions but in a good way; inspiration and motivation. But so far what I have noticed with political advertisements is that a lot of them attack their opponents instead of saying what they would do for the country. Both types of advertisements use pathos but instead of using it for inspiration and motivation, political advertisements can use it to scare you by saying if you don't vote for a certain candidate then the world is going to blow up. Political advertisements often use Ad hominem and scare tactics while consumer advertisements use more of appeal to authority and your desires.

Discussion Question 3: Class Participation

3. Why does reflective writing help a student learn and develop as a better writer? How does it work?

 

Reflective writing helps a student learn and develop as a better writer in a couple different ways. It helps them because it allows them to see if this is really what they want to say and how they want to say it. To re-see these questions in their paper, they have to set a certain distance between themselves and the paper and that is exactly what reflective writing creates. It also helps the instructor by giving them a better way to guide through the paper and to know to respond to it better. The intentions of reflective writing are to give a sense to the audience of what you are trying to say, this is essential for the communication from the author, to the paper, to the audience. Reflecting on yourself as a writer is what makes you grow and turn into the writer you want to become. It works because instead of just writing to please your teacher, you actually become involved and have a real intention of what you are trying to say through your piece.

Thesis, Outline, Body

Thesis: Political advertisements often don’t say why they should be president but rather attack the other opponent. To figure out how they go about doing this I analyzed two commercials from the Reagan vs. Carter era. I looked into logos, ethos, pathos, images being shown, and what is being said throughout the advertisements.

 

Body Paragraph:

The campaign I’m going to focus on is the Reagan vs. Carter era. I watched multiple videos from each side and have noticed multiple strange things. The first thing I’m going to analyze is what they discuss in the commercials. In the first commercial I watched for President Carter stated "Vote for yourself, you don't have to for me, vote for your own interest." and then at the end it says "vote for your own well fare by voting democratic." That stands out to me because he is saying to pretty much do what you want, but reelect him. It is just very strange and contradictive. This commercial did not accomplish what it should have. It didn’t state why they were the better candidate, they only talked about why the other candidate is the worse pick.

 

 

Outline:

 

Paragraph A: Intro

 

 

Paragraph B: Analyzing Audience

 

1.      Article [a]

 

2.      Image [a]

 

3.      Article [b]

 

      Paragraph C: Analyzing Logos

1.      Article [a]

 

2.      Image [a]

 

3.      Article [b]

 

      Paragraph D: Analyzing Ethos

1.      Article [a]

 

2.      Image [a]

 

3.      Article [b]

 

 

Paragraph E: Analyzing Pathos

 

1.      Article [a]

 

2.      Image [a]

 

3.      Article [b]

 

Paragraph F: Analyzing Images/Appearance of Video

 

1.      Article [a]

 

2.      Image [a]

 

3.      Article [b]

 

Paragraph G: Analyzing Speaking

 

1.      Article [a]

 

2.      Image [a]

 

3.      Article [b]

Paragraph F: Conclusion

 

Discussion Question

What have you learned about making writing and revision choices based on your own thinking? What have you learned about acting on feedback from readers like your peers or your instructor?

 

Something I have learned about making writing and revision choices based on my own thinking is that since I wrote the paper and put a lot of effort into it, I obviously think it is well written. But what makes me a better writer is to get feedback from my peers. Sometimes that can see things in my writing that can be written in a better way and be able to give me pointers on how to make it better. That leads me into the second question that I need to be open to taking suggestions from people. They aren’t criticizing my writing to hurt me but to help make me a better writer.

Draft of Analysis

The campaign I’m going to focus on is the Reagan vs. Carter era. I watched multiple videos from each side and have noticed multiple strange things. The first thing I’m going to analyze is what they discuss in the commercials. In the first commercial I watched for President Carter stated "Vote for yourself, you don't have to for me, vote for your own interest." and then at the end it says "vote for your own well fare by voting democratic." That stands out to me because he is saying to pretty much do what you want, but reelect him. It is just very strange and contradictive. In the second commercial I watched for President Reagan it was talking about how a change was needed for the country and how President Carter was not good for the country and that Reagan would be a better candidate. What neither of these commercials accomplished was they didn’t state why they were the better candidate, they only talked about why the other candidate is the worse pick. The next commercial I watched for Carter really took me by surprise because it was talking about how he is a religious man and how he prays on a daily basis. Now a days presidential candidates try and avoid the topic of religion because it is a very controversial matter. I know today it is very controversial whether or not Obama is Muslim or not so obviously today they wouldn’t show a commercial based off of religion. The Reagan commercial that corresponded with it was really well in my opinion. He talked about how he would make a better America and how he would keep his promises. There was also an independent candidate during this time, John Anderson. Honestly I think his commercial was better than some of Reagan’s and Carter’s. It talked about his background and all that he has accomplished. Usually independent candidates don’t get very far because most people are either Republican or Democratic and don’t really keep an open mind about anything else. I’m not going to lie, I don’t know very much about independent parties either. But watching John Anderson’s commercial made me want to research more and to keep an open mind without letting my political views get in the way. Another commercial I watched for Jimmy Carter was absolutely terrible. It showed videos of people on the streets sating how they don’t like Reagan and just completely bashing him. That is not a way to get a message across. I know this has happened on both sides of the argument obviously and it’s wrong on both sides. Candidates need to stop bashing one another and actually start giving us reasons to vote for them. Tell us what they plan on doing, what their views are, how they are going to fix problems throughout our country, and why we should trust them. That brings me to the last commercial I watched for Reagan. His wife Nancy is talking and asks those same questions to Carter. She wants the cards laid all on the table which is what the citizens want as well. The reason I think she doesn’t say what Reagan will accomplish is because that is not her place to. That is his job to tell us all what he plans to do if he is elected president. The last commercial I watched for President Carter stated false claims about Reagan. It put words into his mouth that he didn’t say in that order. It even shows the clip of what Reagan said and you can clearly see that the video is chopped in the middle and it is not all one sentence. That is just very childish in my opinion and doesn’t need to happen. I think that everyone should be treated the way they want to be treated in any type of competition. And I also think that if an opponent attacks you in an unfair way, our instinct would be to attack them back. After all if you can’t take it then don’t dish it out. But in a situation like this, you would just need to be the bigger person and not stoop to their level.

Freewriting on Paper 3

The thing that I think is going to be the hardest for this paper is to keep an open mind and to not let my political beliefs get in the way. I have a very passionate personality and am very interested in politics. Something I really like is how we are looking at ads that are from many years ago. One, it does really make it easier to not take anything too personally since it really isn’t hitting home. And two, it’s very interesting to look at what political advertisements were like in the past and how ridiculous/humorous some of them are! Something I hope I can do better one this paper is to get more specific. One my past two papers I know that I haven’t been as specific as I could’ve been. That’s what is really hard for me to do though. I’m not really sure why. I guess it’s because I’m more of a math person. I like straight to the point things. 1 + 1 = 2. Done. But in English you have try to explain yourself in not straight-forward ways, if that makes sense. I’ve never been much of a language arts person. I think I just need to learn how to go deeper into my work. Even if I feel that I described it as specific as I can, to just take it another step further. Maybe I should get more people to read my essays as well because maybe they’ll see something wrong with it that I can’t see myself.

The Living Room Canidate

http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1980/ballot

After making a list of details I notice, what I found most interesting was what first noticed about this commercial for President Carter in 1980. It was that through out the commercial it states "Vote for yourself, you don't have to for me, vote for your own interest." and then at the end it says "vote for your own well fare by voting democratic." That stands out to me because he is saying to pretty much do what you want, but reelect him. It is just very strange and contradictive.

Analyzing "Sanitized" Version and "Ghost to Sell Scotch"

While analyzing these advertisements, what I noticed was that they all use pathos to connect to the audience. Encouraging you to be free and to do things if your heart is in it and if it's what you want. The first advertisement does this by saying "It may not be much light but it beats the darkness." That right there is something I think everyone can relate to. Everyone goes through hardships in their life but what you go through doesn't make you who you are, it's how you react to it. The second advertisement uses pathos also by saying "If you have to wait for it to roar out of you, then wait." That is also something that I think everyone can relate to. Nobody is just given anything, you have to work for it. What I don't understand though is how the first ad relates this to sell you Levi's jeans and the second ad uses this to sell scotch. Just because you wear Levi's or drink Scotch doesn't make you a different person. Which is why I think these advertisements use pathos to connect to you to make you think that it does.