TOW #6: Vigineo Home Security Advertisement

(Source)

This advertisement for Vigineo home security systems is quite simple, yet eye catching. The goal of the advertisement is simply to sell home security systems. The advertising executives and employees at Vigineo aim to accomplish this through minimalism and fear.

Pictured here is a white background with a hand with it’s fingers crossed, which symbolizes someone hoping for good luck. However, drawn on the fingers is a picture of the face of a tough-looking man with a knife to another man’s throat. The text at the top reads: “Because you can’t always trust good luck.”

Aimed to target homeowners, this ad is effective because of its minimalism and play on fear. The average time people look at advertisements is about one second. Homeowners are most likely working people, and do not spend time looking at advertisements for long. The fact that the only thing in the picture directly relates to the point that Vigineo wants to get across cuts through any fluff right away. Viewers get the point. The white background helps to bring out the hand even more, and the use of black inc for the faces drawn on the fingers draws the eye directly to it. The play on fear utilized in conjunction with the minimalism drives the point home.

The text at the top reads: “Because you can’t always trust good luck,” which refers to the man with the knife to the other man’s throat. The advertisement is essentially telling the viewer that they can’t just rely on luck to be safe in their own home. This play on fear is effective because the reader sees exaggerated, but plausible consequences of not getting home security, and the play on the crossed fingers for good luck ties everything together. Thus, through this simple and funny ad which plants a small seed of fear within viewers’ minds, Vigineo effectively prompts people who don’t have home security to think twice about their safety, and of course to use Vigineo.

TOW #5: Like apparel are we headed for ultra-casual? by Jerry Epperson

In the October issue of the magazine Furniture Today, well-respected furniture critic Jerry Epperson wrote his usual opinion piece. However, in Like apparel, are we headed for ultra-casual?, he barely mentions furniture at all. Instead, he begins with describing how people used to dress nicely in general. Then, he goes on to tell his experience and observations when he went to eight different department stores. Epperson mentions furniture only once, saying, “I decided to go shopping and look at today’s styles in apparel, which is often a leading indicator of what is about to occur in home furnishings” (Epperson). For most of the piece, Epperson seems to be merely griping about the latest fashion trends. However, like the title states, his purpose is for the readers, mostly people who are literate in the furniture world, to take caution about new trends in fashion, because they may carry over into the furniture world.

Epperson does not achieve his purpose flawlessly. He writes, “My observations included:” and then proceeds to list what he observed at the department stores he visited (Epperson). Epperson does not take an objective stance on his observations, throwing in comments like: “Wearing exercise clothing has no requirement that the wearer exercise, evidently” (Epperson). This detracts from his purpose because he spends the majority of his piece throwing in lines like this instead of telling the reader how this could affect new furniture styles directly. Epperson seems to air more on the criticizing than analyzing side.

Not only does his list full of snarky comments detract from his argument, but Epperson’s rhetorical questions do not serve his purpose either. At the end of his piece, Epperson writes: “Will everything all blend together in one neutral style that is ultra-casual? Is that our fate?” (Epperson). He closes with this sweeping statement, but instead of enforcing the fear and caution Epperson set out to do, he makes a sweeping statement that readers can easily argue with. Besides complaining about people’s clothing style, Epperson offers no evidence of these styles carrying into the furniture world. Therefore, these questions, intended to strike fear in the furniture business, do absolutely nothing.

This furniture set up looks pretty put-together to me

(SOURCE)

TOW #4: Outliers (IRB) by Malcolm Gladwell

       The book Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell, a well-known thinker and National Bestselling author, is about how successful people find their success. In the book, Malcolm Gladwell argues that people are not successful because they work for it; they are successful because they were lucky and born in good circumstances. Gladwell aims to flesh out all of the apparent misconceptions common people have about success. He argues that success cannot be acquired by just anyone. In the first half of the book, he essentially tells all of the people looking to be successful, like young entrepreneurs or young people just entering the work forces or people going through school, that the “outliers” are not truly outliers at all. He wants to assure his audience that successful people essentially had help being successful.

       Gladwell uses facts frequently to forward his theory. When Gladwell argues that phenomenon like relative age affect a person’s success in the world of sports, he offers tables listing teams of professional athletes. Gladwell explains that whichever month a sport’s cut off is in, the best players will have their birthdays close to the cut off because they were always at a couple-month advantage athletically and developmentally. Not only does he prove this by listing the roster of the Medicine Hat Tigers, the best junior hockey team in Canada, but also by listing rosters for the Czech junior hockey team, and Czech national soccer team. By offering multiple pieces of evidence, Gladwell is able to appeal to logos, which enhances his argument. This may also appeal to ethos because his evidence will impress a reader who tends to respond to logos.

        Anecdotes are also a large part of Gladwell’s argument. He uses anecdotes to illustrate large portions of his subject’s lives. When Gladwell begins the “10,000-hour rule” chapter, he uses Bill Joy, legendary computer programmer as an example. Instead of just telling the reader where Joy grew up and such, Gladwell crafts his life into an interesting snippet. He writes: “Joy came to the University of Michigan the year the Computer Center opened. He was sixteen. He was tall, and very thin, with a mop of unruly hair. He had been voted ‘Most Studious Student’….,which, as he puts it, meant he was a ‘no-date nerd’” (Gladwell 35-36). Gladwell goes on to tell about how Joy got lucky with the fact that he was enrolled in the University of Michigan. These short anecdotes are sprinkled throughout each section, and they help Gladwell to appeal to pathos, like with the fact that Joy was a ‘no-date nerd’. They also help to forward his purpose because the anecdotes serve as the context to many of his arguments. By utilizing both facts and  anecdotes, Gladwell achieves his purpose in an intriguing but believable way.

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TOW #3: SmartWater

Millions of people a day buy bottled water. Although most contain the same type of water, many people, including my good friend Leah, think that “SmartWater is just better”. I disagree;  I know it’s all in the packaging.  Due to the fact that there are countless types of water bottles to choose from, and usually they sit right next to each other in convenience stores, SmartWater has adjusted the rhetoric on the bottle so people choose their “superior” product.

In order to influence people to choose and keep choosing SmartWater, the scientists and advertising team, who should know what they are talking about, considering it is their product, utilize a friendly tone and advanced vocabulary to convince the reader of the superiority of their water. On the front of the bottle, SmartWater proudly proclaims that the water inside is, “vapor distilled water and electrolytes for taste” (SmartWater bottle). Although these words are not necessarily SAT words, the average reader is not usually confronted with words like “vapor distilled” and “electrolytes” when choosing water. Besides giving the reader information about the water, these words just make SmartWater sound, well, smart. Many readers may also be prompted to wonder, what is vapor distilled? Maybe this water really is better… And electrolytes, wow! Not only does the vivid vocab on the front achieve its purpose, to get people to buy SmartWater, but the blurb on the back with a casual tone helps as well.

When you turn the SmartWater bottle around to find out more about the water being “vapor distilled,” the blurb back is different than the usual. It boldly says how their water is “a difference you can taste...unless, of course, you prefer the taste of that stuff that comes from underground...like spring water (then you’re on your own)” (SmartWater bottle). This intentionally casual and playful language appeals to both pathos and ethos. Instead of the reader seeing the water company as some removed sources of information, the bottle talks directly to the reader, utilizing second person. Therefore, the author seems like a friend or someone that the reader trusts. Also, the challenge of “unless, of course, you prefer the taste of that stuff that comes from underground,” appeals to pathos because if the reader did like spring water, the light but slightly undermining tone this makes the reader think twice about spring water. Although the company may be making a jab at the customer’s tastes, the blurb does it in such a way that the reader could not possibly be offended, and it still makes SmartWater sound better. SmartWater uses advanced vocabulary and a casual tone to effectively prompt people to buy their water over countless others, and judging by my friend Leah, their tactics are working.

TOW #2: NSA Republican Political Cartoon by Mike Luckovitch

Mike Luckovitch, a Pulizter Prize editorial cartoonist, illustrates the relations between the Republican party and the NSA in this cartoon. In this cartoon, a representative from the NSA is sitting in front of a board of elephants, who represent the Republicans. He is seemingly reporting back the NSA’s findings to the Republicans by saying, “We intercepted the ‘chatter’ of a group plotting to cripple the U.S. government and harm the economy”. In reply to this, the Republicans say, “we don’t appreciate you listening in to our phone calls”.

For the intended audience, well-educated people who know a little about politics, the multiple messages are clear. The first message is that the NSA is using the protection from terrorism as an excuse for listening to people’s phone calls. The audience knows this because the three Republicans are the congressmen at a political hearing for the NSA to justify what they are doing. By saying “we intercepted” something, the NSA is justifying the fact that they are abridging American freedoms. The second message is that the party in power, now has the ability to spy on the opposing party. The NSA is controlled by the Democratic Party currently, and they have the ability to spy on the Republicans as exemplified here. This demonstrates the particular danger of using terrorism to justify domestic spying. The third and most prominent message, and also the punchline of this cartoon, is the fact that the Republicans are the sources of the terrorist ‘chatter’ that the NSA found. Luckovitch is commenting on the motives of the Republican party. The third message is that Republicans do?{'-"{ not have America’s best interest at heart. Instead of talking about how to improve America over the phone, they were “plotting to cripple the U.S. government and harm the economy”. This illustrates that the Republican party is really maliciously plotting for their own good.

Through the use of humor and multiple layers of meaning, Luckovitch achieves his purpose. He is able to get across his messages with multiple layers of underlying meaning as the reader chronologically reads the cartoon. The first message about the NSA can be deduced from just the fact that the NSA was at a political hearing. The second message comes through when the reader sees the Republicans as the ones being spied on. The punchline brings the cartoon home with humor. Luckovitch is able to use humor to illustrate deeper meanings and get his messages across in this cartoon.

(source: http://www.sodahead.com/fun/still-more-political-cartoons/question-3899085/)

TOW #1: A Bully Does His Research by Jesse Eisenberg

In the piece A Bully Does His Research, found in the New Yorker website, Jesse Eisenberg, an actor that surprisingly writes for the blog section, addresses the true underlying pain that a bully can inflict. The article is a satirical inner monologue from a bully who begins the day by taking another student’s lunch money, then gets scolded by his teacher, is suspended by the principal, and tears down his father on the way home from school.

The unique thing about this bully’s inner monologue is that the bully doesn’t think like an actual person would. Instead, Eisenberg incorporates the victims’ views within the thoughts of the bully. For example, when the bully is confronted by the teacher, he or she responds with: “Yeah, I know you wanted to go to RISD since you were my age, but you couldn’t get in and now you’re stuck teaching sixth-grade science. Well, boo-hoo-hoo!” (Eisenberg). The ambiguity of the bully’s words illustrates the meaning throughout the passage. A bully would not actually say any of these things, but when someone is being bullied, all of the suppressed pain in a victim’s life seems to be at the forefront of his or her mind.

In every confrontation, the bully seems to know the exact source of pain for the victim, and he or she exploits it. No real bully would be saying things like: “thanks for the ride home, Pops! Is it nice to pick me up in the middle of the day, or does it highlight the fact that Mom’s the one with the real job?” (Eisenberg). At the very end, the bully is staring at his own reflection while he is locked in his room. Eisenberg then writes the inner monologue of the bully attacking himself. He ends with, “if no one likes you, you could remain in that safe little bubble? Bite me!” (Eisenberg). 

Through this utilization of satire, and a full circle ending, Eisenhower proves his purpose that many bullies can exploit some of the most painful things in a person’s life; however, they probably ridicule themselves internally as well. This simple and tasteful blog post shows any reader the true thoughts of both the bullied and bully, and therefore, it can help just about any age, gender, or type of reader to overcome this daunting problem.

Article Link 

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IRB Intro: Outliers

As my mom told me early this year, The Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell is a nationally ranked book. All throughout this spring, she would give me little bits and pieces of information from the book, such as the fact that the Raven's Progressive Matrices tests are the most advanced IQ tests in the world, and almost no one can get a good score on them. Obviously, this was intriguing. I began to ask my Mom more about the book, to which she replied: "you'll just have to read it." So, since The Outliers has been lying on my nightstand beside my bed for a few months now, I decided to give it a shot. 

I researched a bit more on what the book was about and I found out that it offers the formula to success! Well, not quite, but it does highlight many famous successful people (and success stories) and analyze what made them so successful. Gladwell's radically different viewpoint on success states that success is not just who a person is, or how hard he or she works, but most of success can come from someone's culture, family, generation, and his or her upbringing. Although Mr. Yost did give us a fair warning on Gladwell's writing style, the topic of his book is just too attractive to resist. 

After reading this book, I expect to be equipped with the secret to life, and the formula for success. So I may be exaggerating, but in all seriousness, I want to use the information in this book to make this year a successful year for me. My goal in this year is to learn to think on a higher level and to learn to work with the efficience and diligence of a college student. I have to adapt to my new workload and at the same time balance many different extracurricular activities. I'm hoping that some tips and advice from someone who has studied why certain people succeed might help me to do the same. I'm hoping to become an outlier!