Rhetorical Analysis Redux

Vitamin Water ad-With Carrie Underwood

For this ad I thought the main target audience would be towards the young population of America; including young teens, young adults, and adults younger than 50. I thought this ad would be affective because first of all there was a celebrity in the ad to grab the audience’s attention. People tend to pay attention more when there is a celebrity than a non-celebrity.  Second the ad states that when Carrie Underwood tried Vitamin water she was inspired to try something new and exciting, in this case horse whispering. This encourages the audience that if they do try vitamin water then they too will be inspired to try something new and exciting.  Also the ad incorporated horses, which would appeal also to the animal lovers in America. The ad plays off the horse whispering as a joke, which causes the ad to have a sense of humor and makes the ad more interesting.

This ad personifies the company in a positive way by showing how vitamin water gives you momentum to try new things. It also shows how it can energize you in a healthier way than an energy drink. To show how vitamin water is health for you as well as can energize you at the end of the ad it overhead announcer list off positive ingredients in the water and then ones that are bad that are not in the water.

This ad could have possibly not have gone in the positive direction we would want it to since there is a violence factor in the ad which could drive some people away.  Also not everyone likes Carrie Underwood so what we thought might have helped us to incorporate a celebrity could have hurt us in the long run. 

The Rhetoric of the Market

The Rhetoric of the Market

1.     1. One of the advertisements I have is about the new 10-calorie vitamin water. Their advertisement makes me think about how I should eat and drink healthy. It makes me think I can enjoy a flavored beverage with out worry about how many calories is in it.  
The other advertisement I used was a movie trailer for Adventureland. After viewing this trailer I thought about the summer and working. It made me want to make sure I get a good summer job.
 
2.     In the vitamin water commercial since they made the drink only have 10 calories then they are saying that Americans need to lose weight or simply that so many Americans are worried about their weight that they do not drink anything with high calories. 
In the Adventureland trailer they are stereo typing young Americans getting bad jobs during the summers.
 
3.     In the Vitamin water commercial the use value is quenching your thirst with a flavor water drink. The exchange value is that it is only 10 calories. Their main attraction is you can have a great tasting beverage with less calories. 
In the Adventureland trailer you are entertained with a potential movie you might want to go see.
 
4.      The vitamin water ad would be towards younger people to middle aged adults. I think you would find the advertisement in any generic magazine ranging from a sports magazine to a gossip magazine.
I think Adventureland is a movie targeted at young teenagers. I would expect to see an advertisement for this in any teen magazine.

Essay 3 Topic Proposal

Topic 3 Proposal :
I am going to write like the onion about how we should deal with the media affect young women’s views of their body image. In my essay I will propose that society should no pay any attention to the stars and models. I will propose that instead of looking up to actors and actress to look up to leaders and people who are inspirational. The world would be a better place if people would stop putting actors and models on a higher pedestal than everyone else because in reality they are average people just like you and me.

This picture is my first "text". This picture makes me happy because it reminds me of the times I visited Paris. I love Paris and my great aunt lives there which makes visiting there cheaper and easier since I have a personal tour guide.

Text 2:

Today, I went to the gym and worked out with a trainer. While doing arm exercises he commented on how impressed he was with the size of my triceps. That really boosted my self-confidence, until he leaned in to feel them and said, "Oh, it's just fat." FML

This makes me laugh becasue my and my best friend/roommate work out alot and this reminds me of us trying to be in "shape" but really not.

Topic Proposal #2

How do the media have an impact of body image in young women?
By media I am including magazines, Hollywood, movies, TV shows.
By body image I mean the way women feel about their body shape.
By young women I mean girls ranging from ages 10 to as old as late 20’s.
Sources:
1. In EBSCO Host Academic Search I found an article called “Relationships Between Body-Shape Discrepancies With Favored Celebrities and Disordered Eating in Young Women.” This article believes in the fact that due to celebrities being close in age to young women, girls the same age as these celebrities will want to look and be like them. Most celebrities are considered thinner than the average weight for that age. Since young women look up to these celebrities they will go to great lengths as to even having eating disorders. To prove their point there is a study included in this article that was conducted on around 159 college students ranging from the ages of 18 to 27. These students were asked to pick a certain celebrity around the same age as them that they looked up to. They were then told to judge the way they thought of the body of their celebrity, themselves, as well as the body image they would like to have. They would them compare the body image of what they would like to have with that of their celebrity. The study then goes on to rank whether the participant has an eating disorder or not using the EAT-26.

2. In EBSCO Host Academic Search I found an article called “Media Influences and Body Dissatisfaction in Young Women”. This article talks about how young women are pressured socially and culturally to be thin causing them to start having an eating disorder. There are two main ideas of what the media causes on young women, one being that when they are shown a picture of a celebrity they start to feel anxiety and self conscious, another is that when a young women is exposed to thinness more often than others then they are more vulnerable to have an eating disorder. One suggestion to help solve this problem is to encourage better media literacy. For girls to be able to interpret what the media is trying to convey successfully.

3. In EBSCO host Academic Search I found an article called “The Effects of the Media on Body Image: A Meta-Analysis”. In this article some researched have linked eating disorders to media exposure in young women. Another group of researchers have stated that the media has concluded a positive attitude of body image in young women. Others believe there is no relationship between the media and body image in young women. Then the article goes into talking about three different theories. One theory is that people will compare themselves to other people around their same age and who are better looking than they are. Another theory is that the more a person watched television the more that person will start to believe that television is “real life.” The other theory is that people will model and try to behave as the more attractive group of people.

4. From the Opposing Viewpoints research center I found an article titles “Why thin is in”. In this article the author talks about the different reasons young women feel that they need to be thin. She continues to talk about how the media promotes girls to look like how the celebrities look which causes them to want to become super thin. This can cause some young women to go to great lengths such as having an eating disorder. The author believes that young women want to become like the super models they continually see in magazine ads and on television. The media has portrayed a successful woman to be tall, thin, toned, and commanding. This then causes women to go to great lengths to try and become this successful woman. The article even goes into detail of how some celebrities even fight with their weight and how they are pressured to look thin and attractive to make a living. The article concludes in talking about ways to fight back against the media and not let the media influence our ideas of body image and to not dwell on the type of body you have now, even if it seems to you “not perfect”.

5. From Opposing Viewpoints research center I found an article called “Society’s Unhealthy Obsession with Thinness”. In this article they are at first agreeing with the idea that the main reason for young women to get an eating disorder is because of the media. Another reason more women are starting to have an eating disorder is because of society’s idea of the ideal women, thin and attractive. The article then starts to oppose the idea that the media is responsible of eating disorders in young women. They argue that if this was true then bulimia would be considered an epidemic. The author argues its case by paralleling bulimia with alcoholism. The example used is that when people go to casino just because they are around alcohol does not mean that they will become alcoholics by the end of the night. She parallels this with the idea that women are around advisements and music videos of thin women all the time and yet not every women who sees an advertisement of a thin model becomes bulimic. The idea of the perfect female needs to be re worked into society as an average sized girl in order to stop young women from idolizing thin girls and thus starting an eating disorder.

For my topic proposal I choose the subject on way the main reason people laugh is when they are surprised. I agree because according to many sources of text people are proven to laugh when something happens out of the ordinary. People don’t expect anything out of the ordinary to happen so when something does occur that is not normal their first reaction is to laugh. I want to support this idea of the main reason people do laugh is because they are surprised. There are many different types of evidence presented to support this theory. Some examples of evidence include going back to the primitive ages, your first laugh as a baby, and a scientific study. The evidence begins with talking about the generally accepted notion of evolutionary expansion the evidence is then supported with an example story. The next evidence presented is with a story of when you were first a child and you had your first laugh. Another piece of evidence describes an experiment performed on brain patterns. The final evidence given talks about the classic joke structure which makes people laugh. The author presents himself as trustworthy by supporting his evidence and his argument with examples of why people would laugh in certain situations. The writer also gave evidence not only by describing scenarios but by also proving scientifically the main reason people laugh. By having these explanations supported by all this evidence it is clear why the reason people do laugh is because they are surprised.

Blogg 3

One main point seen throughout the readings so far is that we laugh when we are surprised. This interests me because when I think of someone being surprised I think of people having the opposite reaction of laughter, usually being scared. When someone is surprised they are not expecting what happens and thus they are upset or angry that such an event would happen. Being surprised according to the book “Comedy Writing Secrets” is one of the main reasons as to why we laugh. According to the book people laugh when they are surprised to cover their feelings of embarrassment. The book states that you cannot be funny without the element of surprise. In my opinion I think the writer has left out the fact that when people are surprised most of the time their feelings consist of horror, scared or nervous, not instant laughter.

In this video there is a surprise ending that really makes the video funny. The ending is something that is completely unexpected that the audience did not see coming. I believe that at the end of a joke or humorous play if the actor does something out of the ordinary then the audience will laugh because they were not expecting the act to occur. This is what is explained in some of the previous readings, if something out of the ordinary occurs then the audiences reaction would be to laugh.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/16388/saturday-night-live-surprise-party

Blogg 2

In Laughing Matters the author compares human laughter with animals that laugh, mainly gorillas and apes. The author goes into the idea of how do we really know that animals are laughing instead of using some different form of communication with one another. The author takes a look into scientific research conducted in order to conclude what is considered laughter by animals. They talk about what causes humans to laugh and that laughter is a release of tension from a fearful situation. It talks about how scientist have studied why people laugh and what are the health benefits from laughing, if there are any. Then they talk about a guy names Tim Vine who is in the Guinness Book of World Records because he can say the most jokes in on hour. Then they go into the machine called STANDUP. This machine was built to make jokes in a certain format. STANDUP is an acronym for System to Augment Non-speakers Dialogue Using Puns. This machine was mainly built for children who have disease that enables their speaking abilities to learn how to speak and tell jokes. Chapter 2 in Comedy Writing talks about the 8 main reasons of why we laugh: Surprise, superiority, instinct, incongruity, ambivalence, release, puzzle solving, and regression. The element of surprise makes us laugh in the sense that we do not know what to expect in the joke so we wait for the punch line to occur. Making jokes boost peoples confidence if the audience laughs at their jokes. This causes comedians to feel superior of the audience thinking they have control over them. Laughing has become instinct to humans where you do not think about laughing before you do so. Incongruity is when you laugh when something is inconsistent with its self. When something or someone is doing something they do not normally do in the real world. Ambivalence is where you have an experience out of the ordinary from the real world. We laugh when we want to release some tension or get nervous. When you solve a puzzle you want people to know so they will think better of you and in order to do this you start to laugh. Regression is similar to release as to where you need to release feelings you don’t know any other way to do but laugh.
I do not understand how scientists are able to “study” laughter and how people tell jokes affects an audience. Everyone is different which causes the experiments to never be able to repeat the same thing over again on different subjects. I agree with the essay where it talks about how laughter is good for the body and releases endorphins to make people happier. I understand how scientist can study laughter in that since. But to me I do not understand how laughter can be measured or studied in laboratory. I do not believe that laughing can help cure people by realizing so much endorphins and I do not believe such a study can be conducted. I agree with Comedy Writing where they talk about the reasons people laugh but I do also think there are other reasons people laugh for as well. In chapter 2 the subject of testing humor waves in the brain to see what people think is funny is mentioned as well as the fact that people have different views of what is funny and what isn’t. I do not agree with sick humor but I do find myself thinking oh that’s finny but then at the same time saying to myself I shouldn’t laugh at that its morally wrong.
Question: Do you think studying humor in a laboratory is accurate?

Reading Response 1

In Comedy writing chapter one you learn the fundamentals of how to start being funny, whether writing or speaking. You learn about the three R’s: respect, remembrance, and rewards. All of these are said to benefit you as a humorist. You then learn of the map to being a successful humorist. This map is a triangle between material, performer and the audience. All of which rely on each other to be successful. Finally you learn how that it is important to read your audience and the type of people present. In Laughing Matters by Bergson he compares a human being with a machine and how humor is parallel to how a machine works. In Laughing Matters by Hemley he talks about different stories he thinks are funny that he has either created through imagination or that he has experienced in life. He talks about life stories with his daughter and friends who have helped him grow famous as well as how daydreaming and fantasies have also helped his writing be humorous. He ends with talking about surprising oneself is what makes things funny. How humorist will take something simple and twist it into something of the unknown which makes us laugh and think it’s funny.
I really enjoyed reading “Relaxing the Rules of Reason”. Although I do not completely follow what the rules of reason are or why exactly they need to be relaxed I did find the essay to be the most interesting of all the readings. Hemely gave examples of how humorists work in order to create humorous stories or essays. He gave example of real life situations where he finds humor as well as in his daydreaming where he makes up fantasies. He also helped break down the works of Bergson which completely confused me. I did not understand at all what he was talking about most of the time. I did not understand how he was making a connection with humans being funny with a machine. He would continue to talk about human worlds such as soul, rigid, tension, elasticity which would confuse me as to what they pertain to.

Question: What was Bergson talking about in his essay?