Memo

            I am very sorry to hear that the ad has not produced the effects that you had desired.  I do believe that the firm I hired has done an outstanding job on creating the advertisement. In the advertisement, Chad represents the ideals Alltel stands for, and his former bullies represent the other phone companies.   Chad initially was bullied by other kids in the neighborhood and was mocked for his selfless ways of thinking.  Eventually, Chad works for Alltel, a company that believes free minutes should be available to everybody, and is loved by all his customers.  His bullies, now grown up, work for other phone companies but are not as popular or loved by their customers as Chad is.  In the end, the bullies become the real losers. 

            The Alltel advertisement targets the younger generations, because they will be the ones who are searching for a phone company that will meet their needs.  The advertisement also brilliantly attracts older people who have finished their contracts with certain companies and are deciding who they should renew their contracts with.   The commercial appeals to the younger generation through its humor and promise of a popular and sensible image (like the one Chad has), and the commercial also catches the attention of older people, because it indirectly tells them that they can start to make sensible decisions by buying a phone from Alltel.  This indirect message can be found in Chad’s transition from being a loser to the most popular kid on the block.  Chad’s ideals have caused him to be seen as a sensible man, and older generations can carry this image as well if they make wise decisions.  The advertisement uses humor to carry these messages across to their audience more easily.

            The commercial also characterizes the Alltel Company in a positive light.  Chad’s image is not only a promise that the audience can be sensible and popular, but it also represents Alltel’s attitude towards their customers.   There can be no reason that this commercial would not be successful.   I can, however, have this advertisement aired during the more popular timings.  The commercial will surely be a success then.  

The Rhetoric of the Market

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlBxHG4vfKw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rhre2C4THT4

1. We know that ads are supposed to be persuasive. Take this for granted. But what do these ads persuade you to think, do, or believe—especially beyond simply purchasing their products?

The Alltel ad persuades the audience to believe that buying the Alltel phone service is the most logical of choices, and, in the end, customers will be cooler for making that decision. The Windows PC ad attempts to convince the audience that it is easy to use the software, and because it is so simple to use, the software can bring the family closer together.

2. As you study the advertisements, consider all the elements of it that you can identify. In other words, try not to just focus on the explicit argument. What implicit elements argue here?

Without directly telling the audience, the bullies of Chad in the Alltel ad represent the other phone companies. The bullies were once the cool kids. Now, the bullies are losers and Chad, who represents Alltel ideology, is cool and is loved by all. There is symbolism in the ad, but the symbolism is left to the audience to dissect for themselves. In the Windows PC ad, the implicit argument here (which is still pretty obvious) is that if a four and a half year old can send a picture to her family and is still able to communicate to them through Windows, then anyone can keep in touch with their family and bring their family closer together by using Windows.

3. Describe the apparent use-value of each product; then describe the exchange-value as you see it. Basically, what might purchasers of these products expect to get from them that an inexpensive, generic version would not provide? Evaluate the ads in terms of use-value appeal and exchange-value appeal—how does each address use and exchange concerns? Do they all do both? Do any of your observations contradict what you might have expected?

The use-value for the Alltel advertisement is If your cell phone is under the Alltel company, then you can have unlimited calling to 5, 10, or even 20 other people of your choice. You can also add phone lines to your plan for $10 each. For the Windows PC advertisement, the use-value is it’s easy to use and send photos with.
The exchange-value for the Alltel ad is anyone who has Alltel may initially not be as cool, but will eventually be the coolest, because having Alltel makes the most sense. The exchange value for the Windows PC ad, on the other hand, is that Having Windows PC is simple and convenient, and it can be a way to bond with the whole family, because everyone will be able to use it. Windows is attempting to tell the audience that no other software is easier and no other software is a better excuse to have the family become closer.
I think both ads effectively inform the audience of their products’ use-value and exchange-value. The Alltel ad addresses what the use-value and exchange-value of their company’s offers are and does so through comedy. The Windows PC ad, however, successfully addresses their software’s use-value and exchange-value through a cutesy, family-type theme by having a 4 ½ year old use the product.
I don’t quite understand the last question, but I do think there were many ways that both companies could have advertised themselves for their use-value. A company can advertise themselves or their products in many ways in order to convince the audience that it will be useful for them; however, a company chooses a specific type of ad because of how it convinces the audience that there’s also a specific exchange-value that comes with the product. Both ads effectively convey their exchange-value, and I cannot of another way that would have been better.

4. Who would you say the imagined audience for each ad is? What magazines do you think each came from?

The Alltel ad’s audience was anyone who is 18 years or older and is able to buy their own phone, and the Windows PC ad targeted family-oriented people as their audience.

Topic Proposal #3

Nursing Homes need to be reformed in terms of the care and services they provide in their facilities.

Topics:

• Evidence that there is a problem: quantitative and qualitative information
• Causes of the problem: inspection system is broken, an understaffing of nurses, private investment companies are more concerned with the profit they make than how the residents are treated
• Possible solution (still debating if there is a better one): parents sign contracts with children to take care of them when they get older and need help, also local governments take charge of the homes
  
• Results of the solution: lower ratio of staff to residents, governments will have more money to spend on each resident, and nursing homes will not be seen so much as a business but more as a duty
  

Two things that cause a reaction.

1) A humorous stand up comedy piece by Russell Peters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzKHQX59Wso

2) A poem I find moving and spiritually inspirational by Grace L. Naessens:

I got up early one morning
and rushed right into the day;
I had so much to accomplish,
I didn't have time to pray.

Problems just tumbled about me,
and heavier came each task.
Why doesn't God help me? I wondered,
He answered, "You didn't ask."

I wanted to see joy and beauty,
but the day toiled on, gray and bleak.
I wondered why God didn't show me,
He said, "But you didn't seek."

I tried to come into God's presence,
I used all my keys at the lock.
God gently and lovingly chided,
"My child, you didn't knock."

I woke up early this morning,
and paused before entering the day.
I had so much to accomplish
That I had to take time to pray.

Topic Proposal #2

Topic: Should voluntary euthanasia be a legal choice patients can make?

1st argument - Voluntary euthanasia should be legal.

• Mentally competent patients with an incurable disease and/or unbearable suffering should be able to decide the manner and timing of their death.

2nd argument - Voluntary euthanasia should not be legal.

• Goes against the purpose of a physician's job.
• The will to live fluctuates, but euthanasia is an irreversible decision.
• Patients may decide euthanasia to prevent others seeing them as a burden.
• Regulation may not be enforced and people might abuse this choice.
• Moral disintegration of society -> society might begin to see euthanasia as a cheaper and preferable option to cure a problem.

3rd argument - Voluntary euthanasia should and should not be legal. (from a theological stand point)

• The different view points on euthanasia and their reasons behind them.
• May cover 5 or 6 religions.
  

Topic Proposal #1

Questions being answered:

1. What is the purpose of the argument? What does it hope to achieve?
2. What appeals or techniques does the argument use – emotional, logical, and ethical?
3. What are the facts used in the argument? What logic (logos)? What evidence? How is evidence arranged and presented?
4. What claims are advanced in the argument? What logic? What evidence? How is the evidence arranged and presented?
5. What shape does the argument take? How is the argument presented or arranged? What media does the argument use?
6. How does the language or style of the argument work to persuade an audience?

Topics: (1), (2 and 6), (3, 4, and 5)

See Blog 2 for basic sketch of paper.

Topic (1) –

Purpose: Prove that ridicule is an essential tool for human rights and could be used as a nonviolent tool to fight with.

Topic (2 and 6) –

Uses mainly a logical and an ethical (uses logic to support the ethical side) argument. Categorizes the topics and uses instances in history to support each topic that supports the need for ridicule.

Topic (3, 4, and 5) –

The facts are in history. Categorizes each idea.

Ridicule's Role in The World

In the essay Ridicule: An Instrument in the War on Terrorism Waller takes the stance for ridicule and its use to fight against enemies. He focuses on the fact that ridicule has been used several times throughout history as a way of fighting those who are oppressive or, like the Islamic poets, use it as an offensive weapon. The reason, Heller explains, that ridicule is such a useful weapon against enemies is because it can ruin the enemy’s pride, claim to justice, and image of invincibility which is “a fate worse than death”.

Ridicule is an incredible fighting weapon for the common man. It is unbreakable, and it helps to bolster confidence in those oppressed. It can be used defensively or offensively. Anybody can use it—even the common Americans who used the British’s Yankee Doodle song and made it their own in order to insult the British’s pride and to increase their own. When Muhammad became a prophet, he used ridicule consistently and aggressively against enemies, and the Islamic poets during that time wrote ridicule to psychologically attack the enemies. Heller interestingly states that an extreme and powerful leader is even more vulnerable to ridicule and the laughter it produces. Hitler, for example, was subject to ridicule all over the world: British and American boys sang anti-Hitler songs, the three stooges acted out parodies, Charlie Chaplin made the movie The Great Dictator, and even Donald Duck dreamed he was stuck in Nazi Germany.

It is truly amazing how effective of a weapon ridicule is when it makes people laugh. Ridicule is an intangible force that calms people’s fears, gives hope, and can speak the truth. Leaders who like to have absolute control over their people fear this ridicule and attempt to banish this energy that lives only within people. Fidel Castro banned counter-revolutionary jokes from all official buildings. Vladimir Putin made all mockery and insults against the president illegal, and those who broke this law were imprisoned. The Islamic Republic of Iran at one point even assassinated jokesters living out of the country. Despite these and other similar attempts to snuff out ridicule, people still wittingly mock many political issues all over the world.

The problem with this mockery is when it goes too far. It is understandable that the medicine to people’s fear, humorously exemplified in Russell Peters’s joke about terrorists (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf-mBSE1lRs), is ridicule. Heller states “…United States is a status symbol among the world’s terrorists, dictators, and political extremists. By taking that enemy too seriously, by hyping it up as a threat, the United States is unintentionally credentializing a heretofore insignificant individual or group, and giving it the stature it needs to rise above its own society , establish itself, attract recruits, and gain influence.” Russell Peters’s joke clearly shows this fear that Americans have, a fear of something dangerous which can be generalized to other situations too. As important as this cure is to this kind of fear, without limitations, ridicule can breed contempt even after the threat is gone. After a fight, there is peace, and there is a fear that this ridicule will not allow that peace to follow thereafter the fight. Is it possible for people to let go of that ego and pride that ridicule feeds in order to help people to overcome oppressive times?