Objectives:
- Compel students to draft introductions ahead of time
- Demonstrate common problems with introductions - how much did the Good Reasons and They Say/I Say chapters impact their intro writing?
- Encourage students to provide thoughtful feedback on their peers' work - preparation for the full-bore rough draft workshop
Workshopping Intro Paragraphs
Housekeeping:
- An Apprenticeship in Rhetoric...
- ProjectOne and ProjectTwo in our itinerary
- Today's task: workshopping introductions as a group
- Introduction Strategies: the introduction will largely decide both how your writing will proceed and whether or not a reader will continue reading
- Primary challenge of this assignment: be interesting to your audience (how will we do this?: by creating the appropriate exigence for our writing (by using an ad or ads as a synecdoche for larger systems; by linking analysis to broader questions; by relating ad to cultural changes or politics; by showing continuity and change in advertising; by teaching the reader something they didn't already know; showing the ad to be a "problem solver" for the advertiser...)
- Thursday: Peer-to-Peer workshopping
I. Continuity & Change
In the 1970s, innovation in cars caused a big boom in the public’s interest as “new”, more “cooler” looking models began to arise from the automobile industry. Automobiles were not only the primary transportation, but used for racing and cruising with friends as a pastime. It seemed that even though you could be the coolest person in the world, you could lose all social status due to your dorky ride. However, the complete opposite could happen, you could have a complete geek with a kicking ride suddenly picking up all the chicks (babes? My 70’s slang is a little rusty). Why, in this golden age of cruising did this seem to be? Because the car companies did a great job in using strategic advertising to feed the perception that “If you buy our product, it will change your life!”
SolAce
II. Intro sentences, cultural analysis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPO4LezSVf8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Aj55sgudlc
Old Spice is an old product that’s for sure. Two different ad’s from two different time periods. One’s targeting men and the other targeting, well, men. How can two commercials targeting the same audience be almost completely different? Well for one thing both do target men but just a different classification of man. Our first commercial shows little Buddy or Johnny engaging in his favorite pastime, watching his father shave. While his full attention is on his father, we are told Old Spice ‘’softens skin, and moistens the beard.’’ Don’t forget that it smells good too. This commercial, even if made in the 60’s, has a message saying shaving can be just as a fun experience as baseball with your son while being freshly shaved. The later commercial, is obviously more modern and comical. A man, after working out in the gym explains he’s a man because he took the ‘Old Spice Challenge’ which proves he is manly. This commercial lists the ‘real man situations’ where Old Spice is needed and even gives a mock phone number incase the product isn’t viewed manly enough. This commercial has ‘man’ written all over it (incase you couldn’t tell by the number of times the word ‘man’ was in the last sentence). The setting is a gym, he has a basketball, the man has chest hair, he’s cocky and arrogant (sorry boys). Overall, he just loves being a man. Which most men do. While there is only about a 40 year difference in the commercials, I wonder the exact steps and reasons for the transition from dad to a manly man.
RocknRoll
Might add: history of Old Spice?
This commercial?
III. Tasteless vs. Tasteful
Anyone can turn on the television during the peak hours of the day and come across an ad that may display a woman groping on a man or a provocatively dressed woman passionately eating a cheeseburger or people using bleeped curse words. Today’s television commercials have increased in adult content by a large degree and are displayed more during the three-minute breaks of scheduled programming. These marketing strategies have displaced the product itself from the forefront to the background which has made explicit gimmicks the center. Advertisers currently have straddled the lines between television decency and impropriety in hopes of capturing consumers’ attention. Although advertisers go to more extreme measures to get the consumers to say “I want to buy that”, it is still possible that commercials today can be tastefully done and still capture the eyes of the consumer.
DymondSparkle
Possible Revision
Good Reasons 25:
(skeleton)
When it comes to the topic of _, most of us will readily agree that _. Where this argument usually ends, however, is on the question of _. Whereas some are convinced that _, others maintain that _.
(Thomas Frank's execution in "American Psyche")
That we are a nation divided is an almost universal lament of this bitter election year. However, the exact property that divides us - elemental though it is said to be - remains a matter of some controversy.
(DymondSparkle execution)
Even a casual television viewer could tell you that today's commercials focus less on products and more on often tasteless and sexualized images and gimmicks. Watch any hour of prime-time network programming these days, and you are likely to be treated to such sights as a crowd of women wresting each other for the chance to grope a young stud or a bikini-clad heiress passionately eating a cheeseburger. People are more divided, however, on whether it is necessary for advertisers to use these extreme measures to get the consumers to say “I want to buy that,” or if it is still possible that commercials can be tastefully done and still capture the eyes of the consumer.
IV. Focus, intros, judgment...
Has Fitness Awarness Reached New Levels in America.
It seems like in almost every ad you can pick out someone doing something healthy or healthy things lingering in the background. Even in alcoholic commericals, fruit may be added to make it seem alot more appealing, and also it may contain healthier, skinnier looking people consuming the alcohol. Along with fruit, many beers promote less carbs and calories to promote 'healthier' drinking. It seems America is going through a 'thin' epidemic where people will give nearly anything to be thin or more muscular. All the way from steroids to plastic surgery, and from Botox to eating disorders, people seem to be trying at all cost to reach what mainstream America says is popular. What I want to know is has this epidemic gone too far? Or is there still time to save the youth of America from this healthy gone wrong craze?
OldSailor1
V. Unusual Ads
Sprite has been around since 1961, though it was commercialized in the 80s. It was a drink targeted for the younger audience mostly. Commercials first advertising the drink were, like others of the time, mainly a more logical appeal. Stating how it’s taste differs from other lemon-lime drinks, relating to people who enjoy being different. Just recently, Sprite had changed its logo and given it a rather interesting personality. Instead of normal, “contemporary” commercials Sprite has now gone the opposite direction and gone almost completely avant-garde. Symbols upon images flashed onto the screen barraging your eyes (and perhaps even your mind) with a final “OBEY” at the end. They’ve coined the phrase subLYMONal for this: an obvious hybrid of the words “subliminal” and “lymon”. (Lymon was a word used a lot during early campaigns to express the hybrid taste of lemon and lime. Cute, I know.) The company calls this a parody of subliminal advertising, though one will wonder if it does the “same job.” Also, while they could have just stopped at the bizarre commercials, they went further, and moved into a rather interesting type of product placement. They made the advertisements interactive, throwing in special codes that could be used to unlock content on their website. This was used to a rather impressive amount for the television show LOST, and it’s counterpart “The LOST experience.” Use of the codes gave users hints and clues for the show. While Sprite hasn’t completely changed it’s focus, the way it’s gone about selling itself has changed drastically, and one will wonder if the obvious “sublymonal” messaging really works. Either way, one should appreciate these new avant-garde commercials as a breath of fresh air for it’s artistic qualities alone.
StTykonFendersonJackson
VI. Thesis, Tone
This ad implies these cigarettes (these are cigarettes, the ad even says so) will snag any beautiful woman‘s attention. It also implies that these cigarettes will smell wonderful, but most people will agree that only specific tobacco products do in fact smell attractive. Also, this indicates that women can be treated poorly and because they are so “man hungry”, they will go for a man even if he is an asshole. Don’t even get me started on the sexual “undertones” of this ad.
UnionJill
VII. Cross-Cultural
Today’s populace suffers greatly from their own physical appearance. This has been going on for ages, however, and business has been taking advantage of it for as long as we can remember. In recent times, this can be seen especially in the rise of health and diet foods. Now, the corporations who catch, can, and sell tuna are taking up this tactic to boost their sales. The three advertisements above all exhibit women of exceptional beauty, in regards to contemporary standards, being gawked at by many men while she makes her way toward the elevator. As soon as she enters, though, she lets out her stomach to great relief, causing her skirt to rip. Not at all would anyone expect this to be a commercial for tuna, but in its unexpectedness it is quite effective at getting its message across to its target audience. Directed mainly at an audience of young, health/body-conscious women, this advertisement makes the claim that their low fat tuna should be a part of everyone’s diet plan because it will help them look beautiful. This ad increases self consciousness in its viewers about the shape and size of their body, coercing them to purchase the product. Through these commercials canned tuna is taken from its plain simplicity and transformed into a demeaning marketing tool.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kTnNEduixvI -thai version (original)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G49tx1N3PlQ - chinese version, largest stomach of the three, but the faces she makes!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcR0Eq1xrWE&NR - stupid american version, least stomach fat, least acting skill on part of the girl, etc.
Assignment for Thursday
Post your full rough draft on your wiki page (the page you created and posted to the Roster) before the start of class on Thursday. During class you will be divided into small groups to read and critique each other's drafts.
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