In Class Discussion/Activities #7: Shopping Experience & the Five Rhetorical Canons

Here is my shopping experience using the five canons:

Product: Gateway Mini Laptop

I went to Best Buy to purchase a mini laptop. I went to Best Buy because I wanted a laptop that had a substantial amount of memory, but was small enough was also easy to carry back and forth from school since I am a commuter. When I got there a Best Buy sales person helped me find the perfect computer that fit my needs.

Phase 1: Invention = Content
When I went into store I had originally chosen a different computer and was just going to the store so that I could physically see it and make sure that it was the right computer for me. I asked the sales person to honestly tell me whether I was making the best choice. The computer I had chosen was an HP netbook but he told me that the Gateway Net-book was the best. He gave me statistics and facts to back up why the Gateway computer was better than the others they had in stock. So, he convinced me that the Gateway computer was a better choice.


Phase 2: Arrangement = Organizational Structure of Speaker
He started off by asking me what I was looking for. I told him that I wanted a computer that was small but had enough memory for me to save a bunch of files on. He asked me if I was a student because there were a bunch of computers that students particularly liked. So he showed me those computer and out of those I picked out the one I had seen in many advertisements on television or on the internet. I asked him which computer has the most memory because problem was that I couldn’t find a small computer with enough memory the last during a school day. He told me which one had the best memory and was the best overall.

Phase 3: Style = Language of Speaker
The sales person talked to me in a way that made it so I understood what he was talking about. Not everyone understands computers or what exactly they need to be looking for when it comes to computers so having someone who understands that and can help you at the same time is very important. He was very professional.

Phase 4: Delivery = Presentation of Speaker
I liked the way that he talked about the computer with me. Even though I know a lot about computers it was still nice for him to make his answers simple and not complicated. I think if you have ever experienced a sales person who is complicated it just turns you off from purchasing the product no matter how good it is. So, I was glad that he was able to explain what made the computer good but make it understandable at the same time. He made sure to ask me questions like if I was a student? Or what I was going to use the computer for? These questions helped him find the right computer for me.

Phase 5: Memory = Information Memorized by Speaker
I liked the way that he (the sales person) demonstrated that they knew computers and knew what they were talking about. When I asked which was the overall best mini laptop he told me. He didn’t just say that it was a good laptop he explained using facts from memory about the computer he thought was the best.

Syllabus Blog #6: Rhetorical Criticism of Popular Culture

“The Neo-Aristotelian Perspective”: The Droid

“A neo-Aristotelian perspective helps us discover persuasive strategies used by orators by reconstructing the context where the speech occurred and audience expectations, and then examining the message accord to the five classical canons (categories) of rhetoric” (Sellnow, 2010). These five canons are: invention, arrangement, style, delivery, and memory. I have chosen to critique the Verizon cell phone commercials for Droid.

Droid "Stealth" Commercial



Droid "Sufer" Commercial


Phase 1: Invention
Invention represents the content of a message (Sellnow,2010). The content represents their argument. For example, when you are purchasing an item in the store the person who helps is often the person who persuades you to purchase or not to be purchase the certain item you were looking at. According to Sellnow, the content for invention consists of inartistic proofs and artistic proofs. Inartistic proofs are “external sources such as facts, statistics, and personal examples found in books, journal articles and research reports or taken from interview with credible sources to support claims. This means that when people are trying to sell you something the use of statistics and credible information helps convince you that the product you are looking for is correct or incorrect, depending on what you are looking for.

Phase 2: Arrangement
The Arrangement phase is based on the organizational structure of the speaker's message. The organizational structure of the message is "chronological, spatial and problem/solution" (Sellnow, 2010). This means, how the message comes across to the audience. The Stealth commercial for the Droid commercial is set up so you don't know what is being advertised till the very end. It draws you in because it's a mystery. People want to know what is inside the missiles being dropped from the jets.

Phase 3: Style
Style refers to "the language used by the speaker" (Sellnow, 2010) or in this case the commercial. Style is the words that are chosen by the speaker or commercial to make you interested. Style is how the words affect the audience (Sellnow, 2010). In the Droid commerical that refers to a surfer in correlation with the Droid and it's Internet speed. The advertisement states that the speed of the internet browser is the same of a pro surfer at pipeline. Pipeline contains very intense waves so the commercial creates this image of being able to withstand challenges. The words used in the surfer commercial for the Droid is that the droid can go the "furthest expanses of it's universe, deepest depths of it's oceans without as so much as getting a grain of sand in your shorts, [it can go to] wave shredding web-speeds". These words each create an image of strength. Also, it is almost virtually impossible to be in the ocean without getting sand somewhere so the fact the Droid can be compared to that put it in a league all it's own.

Phase 4: Delivery
Delivery "focuses on the speaker's actual presentation with regard to their voice, body and presentational aids" (Sellnow, 2010). The presentational aids can be either positive or negative. This means the speaker has to make sure they use positive aids or people aren't going to listen to what they have to say. The voice refers to how knowledgeable the speaker sounds in regards to what they are talking about. The question is whether the speaker is "understandable, conversational and engaging while talking" (Sellnow, 2010). Body refers to their behavior. For example, eye contact, facial expressions and clothing. According to society the clothing that you wear determines your personality. So, it is very important for a speaker to look professional. In the Droid stealth commercial the delivery is actually literal. Each cell phone is inside what looks to be a missile dropped by each jet. No words are administered at this point. Words would take away from the mystery of what is inside of the missiles. No one words make the stealth commercial very powerful.

Phase 5: Memory
Memory refers to how much "control the speaker seems to have over the material--his or her confidence and fluency" (Sellnow, 2010). Memorization is more important when it comes to purchasing a product in a store because it shows that the speaker knows what they are talking about and isn't just guessing. It is important that in memory phase that the speaker use the fact and statistics because you are more likely to pay attention if the speaker sounds knowledgeable.


Work Cited
Sellnow, D. (2010). The Rhetorical Power of Popular Culture. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

Syllabus Blog #5: Culture Jam Poster

From class I have come to understand that culture jamming is when you take a component or advertisement from popular culture, like a car, and create an advertisement that represents the actual message of that component or advertisement. For example, McDonalds advertises that they have apple slices in order to appeal to children. When in reality they want to appeal to children in order to get their parents to take them to McDonalds. Advertisers also don’t care whether a product is good or bad as long as it sells. In this poster I created an ad for the new Escalade by Cadillac. It is a popular car but it is also a gas guzzler. The Escalade is a very large car that is bad for environment but you don’t realize that when you look at their actual advertisements or commercials. I think that culture jamming is very important because it allows audiences to see what they are really paying for or what they are doing to the environment.

According to the article, “Pranking Rhetoric: “Culture Jamming” as Media Activism” by Christine Harold, “This movement (culture jamming) seeks to undermine the marketing rhetoric of multinational corporations, specifically through such practices as media hoaxing, corporate sabotage, billboard “liberation,” and trademark infringement. Ad parodies, popularized through magazines such as Adbusters and Stay Free! and countless websites, are by far the most prevalent of culture jamming strategies.” This means that culture jamming was created by divergent voices who believe that a lot of popular culture advertisements are sugar coated. The messages that we are constantly bombarded with often sell a bad lifestyle. Often we don’t even realize that we are being sold to. We often don’t realize the hazards that come along with that. Cars like the Escalade or the Hummer are so bad for the environment but are still advertised in the mass media. Adbusters is at the forefront of an insurgent political movement known loosely as “culture jamming” (Harold, 2004). Adbusters create advertisements that represent the true nature of a product that is never revealed to the public by the advertising companies. Culture Jamming isn’t just a term is has become a movement in which people are determined to reveal the inner workings of corporations and the advertising industry.

Adbusters and similar companies use sabotage as a form of culture jamming. A good example is when “The Gap’s infamous appropriation of the likenesses of counter-culture heroes Jack Kerouac and James Dean to sell khaki pants. [It] inspired a response from the adbusting community. To the Gap’s claim that “Kerouac wore khakis,” a group of Australian subvertisers responded with the likeness of another 20th century icon who wore khakis as well—Adolf Hitler. As such, Gap khakis were recoded as a means not to rugged individuality but genocidal totalitarianism— the conformist impulse writ large” (Harold, 2004). This means that sometimes in order to get their point across Adbusters used bad icons that represent the products that are being sold through the mass media. I think that it is important for people to understand that corporations and advertisers do not have our interests at heart and that they only care about how they can make more and more money. Like Michael Moore said, “No Such Thing As Enough” Advertising companies won’t be satisfied until their products are everywhere no matter who they heart. I feel like because of this attitude the environment is suffering the most. This is why I choose to do the Cadillac Escalade. In commercials it looks really cool but in reality cars like this are destroying the Ozone layer. Without the Ozone layer we wouldn’t be able to survive so it is important that people in their fancy cars realize this before it’s too late.

Works Cited:

Harold, C. (2004). Pranking rhetoric: "culture jamming" as media activism. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 21(3), 189-211

In Class Discussion/Activities #5: What Are Unfair Advertising Practices?

I think that unfair advertising practices are tactics that advertising companies will use in order to get exposure for their product under any means necessary. I think that unfair advertising practices are most often aimed at children because they are the most vulnerable when it comes to advertising. According to Media Literacy by W. James Potter, the FCC has set specific times allowed by advertisers to advertise to children. 12 minutes on weekdays and 10.5 minutes per hour. Often companies will violate these regulations. W. James Potter discusses how young children don’t know the difference between content and commercials. Advertisers have to make a clear statement that they are advertising when it comes to products designed for children. Advertisers will play off the mental vulnerabilities of children. Since children lack maturation which is made up of cognitive development, emotional development, and moral development (Potter, J.W. 2007). Cognitive development means how your brain develops; connections are made, how you learn to understand and process information. Emotional development is a learning process of how you feel about certain things. Different life experiences effect your emotional development. Moral development is further a development than what is right and wrong.

The documentary “The Corporation”, by Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott, and Joel Bakan, discusses how advertisers will use children to get their parents to by products, which is known as the “nagging effect”. Nagging has caused parents to make purchases they wouldn’t have made otherwise. Advertising corporations use this to their advantage. If they can create nag worthy items then their products will sell well. According to “The Corporation”, “marketers are playing to development vulnerabilities [of children].” Advertising companies know that today’s children are “tomorrow’s adult consumers.” This means they need to understand what type of products they will by now in order to predict products for the future. “Build the relationship now and you’ve got them as an adult.” This means the advertising companies create wants in consumers so they keep buying and needing their products. Sometimes companies don’t follow the rules and are fined. For example, “Viacom was cited for 600 violations in one year and fined $1 million. Viacom blamed the problem on a human error (Shiver, 2004)” (Potter, W.J., 2007).

I think that it is important to make sure the line between commercial and TV show aren’t crossed. Host selling is also prohibited by the FCC. “Host selling is the use of a character from a TV show being the product spokesperson for products advertised in ads inserted into that program” (Potter,W. J., 2007). This means that within a show a certain product is clearly being advertised by a main character. If TV shows used characters rather than commercials people especially children would base their consumer decisions on whether or not the character liked the product or not. It is up to the advertising industry to create commercials to convince mass audiences to use their product. As with other unfair advertising practices some companies simply don’t follow the rules. “Disney was fined 500,000 and blamed the problem on a human error (Shiver, 2004)” (Potter, W.J., 2007).

Work Cited:
Potter, W. J. (2007). Media literacy. Minneapolis: Sage Publications, Inc.

Syllabus Blog #4: Reaction to "The Corporation" Documentary

“The Corporation” is a documentary by Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott, and Joel Bakan. This documentary examined the “nature, evolution, impact and possible futures of the modern business corporation.” The documentary was made by Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott, and Joel Bakan. A corporation is a business that represents many smaller businesses not that the businesses they represent are small in anyway. Fleet Bank, G.A.P., Versace, Equal, Lipton, M&M, Disney, Cartoon Network, and Best Buy are some of the companies represented by major corporations. These companies are run by various corporations. According to the documentary, “the corporation is today’s dominant institution.”

This documentary examined the impact of today’s big business corporations and how they have obtained so much power. According to the book, The New Media Monopoly by Ben H. Bagdikian there were only about fifty mass media corporations in 1963. Fifty sounds like a lot but in reality they were small and not as powerful at the mass media corporations that exist today. In a little over twenty years the number of mass media corporations shrank from fifty to five. The five mass media corporations are Time Warner, Viacom, Bertelsmann Corporation, News Corp, and Disney. Though Bertelsmann isn’t as big and influential as it once was it is still a major player as one of today’s major big business corporations in the mass media. The corporation was born in 1712 and then the modern age is where the corporation took on a life of its own. They use to be limited, but not there are basically any limits for corporations. I liked how they used Football as a metaphor for corporations. Each person plays their own role for one common goal in order to “succeed as an organization.” American big business corporations run this nation.

The documentary states, “The Corporation is part of a jigsaw of society and as a whole if you remove it the pictures incomplete.” Also, if corporations were the only part it wouldn’t work. This means that corporations need society as much as society needs corporations. The documentary also states that in America we just follow the leader. This means that we follow the latest trends according to what has become popular. We copy what we see in the media ignoring the actual messages being out by corporations. In the documentary “Merchants of Cool” the concert held by Sprite and MTV was made to make Sprite look good. Viewers would never realize that the teenagers were paid fifty dollars each to appear at the event. The concert was just a tactic to get teenagers reintegrated with Sprite products. The documentary also discussed the notion of “bad apples” in the corporate world. Corporations cause a great deal of wealth but there are very many hidden harms. The problem is we as a society doesn’t know what corporations are up to behind closed doors.

A portion of this documentary discusses the advertising industry and their hidden goals. Advertising is everywhere, “like a telephone it reaches everywhere and its powerful and impossible to avoid.” For example, Time Square wasn’t created to be pretty it was created to be a massive build board for the most popular products, people, and organizations. It is impossible to avoid being advertised to when you are there. We are constantly being bombarded with advertisements. “Corporations are like monsters trying to devourer as much profits as possible at anyone’s expense.” This means a corporation is like a whale, gentle and big, but can swallow you whole in a second.

I found it interesting that according to the documentary people who work for big business corporations don’t like the word “corporation”. Robert Keyes, who is president and corporate executive officer (CEO) of Canadian Council for International Business says he prefers the word “business” or “business community”. This means that they don’t want people to realize how much power they actually have. Something also found interesting is that corporations think they are a “person” so in a court of law they are considered a “person”. This means that corporations can live under the pretense that they are like “us”. They use this to their advantage because then they can get away with things. A corporation can’t be arrested only fined. This means that the 14th amendment that protected slaves also protects major corporations. Is that really fair? A corporation isn’t a person, but made up of people and each person should be held accountable for their actions as an individual.

Michael Moore came up with the notion that there is “No Such Thing as Enough” for corporations. This means that corporations are never satisfied with what they have and they always want more no matter who they hurt. Kathy Lee Gilford and Wal-Mart put labels on clothing stating that if you purchased the clothing a portion of the proceeds would go to various children’s charities. The disturbing thing is that it is children who are making the clothing. Corporations hide this fact and look like heroes because they are sending money to children charities. They exploit people and come out on top anyway.

This documentary was very eye opening to me. I am now more conscious about what I am purchasing and where the money is going. I try not to support companies that exploit people. The statistics about how much a product costs to make, how much the worker is paid, and how much consumers pay for a product are mind boggling. I thought this documentary brought light to things that corporations try to keep hidden for example their hidden agendas especially in the advertising industry and the clothing industry.

Work Cited:

Bagdikian, B. H. (2004). The new media monopoly. Boston, Massachuetts: Beacon Press.

In Class Discussion/Activities #4: Photograph of "Cool"

"Cool" People Magazine:

I chose People magazine because it contains what is "cool" and "instyle" that month. People magazine is a way that trends begin. People recognize the celebrities in the magazine and see them representing a certain style. Then, everyone copies the style and this is how trends be
The "Cool" View from my house:

This is the view from my house. I chose this picture to represent "cool" because clothing isn't the only thing that can be trendy. This photograph represents that locations are also trendy. In class, we discussed geographic segmentation in regard to advertising to a niche audience. Niche advertisements are designed to reach a certain type of audience depending. In Geographic segmentation advertisers will put their ads together in such a way to attract people from certain area. For example, where I live their are many magazines available to people who live in my town and on the water. The magazines will have special information on events that happening and products to buy if you live on the water. In the book Media Literacy W. James Potter discusses geographic segmentation and several changes that have occurred. He states that "each year, 20% of the population moves to a new home", which causes areas to change. He also says that locations are becoming less "homogenize", this means that neighborhoods aren't as similar as they use to be.

"Cool" Converse:

This is my converse collection. I think it is "cool" because whereever you go you find different styles of converse. The funny thing is this isn't my whole collection just the ones I didn't have to dig for. Each represents a different time in my life and style for that particular day.The high tops are from my high school days which is why they look so warn out. "Cool" is different for every person. For me having different shoes was "cool". I remember in 8th grade everyone bought a pair of either low top or high tops. The people who started to wear converse shoes after they were "popular" again were called "posers" in my school.

My "Cool" UGGS:

I remember about six years ago my sister bought her first pair of UGGs. They weren't really big yet. I think my sister is the first person I saw wearing Uggs. Then out of the blue everyone had UGGs. I have to admit I wanted a pair because I thought that if everyone had UGGs that I should get a pair as well.

I think that both UGGs and Chuck Taylor Converse shoes are "cool" because they both represent an image. I think that UGGs and Converse is a trend in its self because you are open to something different. Sometimes I want to preppy and other times I want to be punk. It all depends on my mood. I also like to mix and match preppy and punk. In the Look Look press kit it discussed how they have people who go out and find new trends before they have been discovered. Trends just erupt over night, but people seem to think that the trend wasn't there all ready. The interesting thing I am learning about trends is that they were here all along they just hadn't been discovered or marketed yet. Look Look works with big companies to find the trends to market and sell.

In Class Discussion/Activities #3: Look Look Press Kit Critique

L00k L00k's Press Kit

Look Look was developed in 1999 by DeeDee Gordon and Sharon Lee. They use to work for the L-Report together and decided to leave and start their own company. From their press kit I was under the impression that they go out and find original material for their clients in order for trends to become trends. Look consists of 35,000 “trendsetting and mainstream young adults who are there to inform and inspire clients’ most important business decisions.” I found it really interesting that Look Look hirers people to go all around the world looking for people who contain new insight for new trends. The team that goes out into the field to give birth to new trends is called, “the Youth Information Specialists.” According to their press kit, Look Look applies its “part sociologist and part statistician’s cutting edge infrastructure to both inform and inspire.” Either they have a really good publicist or that is really great line they came up with. It is important when dealing with clients who want to make sure to stay updated on current information involving their business. They want to inspire people no only be educated but be inspired to be unique and different.

The Look Look press kit describes youth as a “constantly mutating audience.” So, it is important that their clients to understand youth culture. The youth are the ones that set the trends. Trends arise from the ashes and then fall. Trends kill themselves. What I got from the press kit by Look Look is that The Look Look network is focused on finding trends. They go out into society to find certain people that march to their own drum; a unique person. “The Look Look network doesn’t follow the curve of culture, it swells before it (pg. 5) “The Look Look network connects clients with their target audience, with complete flexibility. The Look Look network emphasizes the importance forging a working relationship with the target audience from the beginning. In other words they strive to connect a client with their desired audiences no matter what.