Reading for Class Week 4!
This week’s reading is an examination of how companies or
political and social campaigns go about making arguments for or against their
products, beliefs, policies or services. The chapter starts off by comparing
Lady GaGa, Kanye West and Bob Dylan. Their connection is that they are all
personas and the faces of corporate brands. The chapter uses them as the
archetypes for examining the essence of why and how they are being used in an
argument for their respected brands.
Bob Dylan’s was a shock to me. Bob Dylan’s song was the
soundtrack for a Victoria’s Secret launch where he was apart of the commercial.
This “out-of-left-field” approach to their marketing and image startled a lot
of people. The Argument that wasn’t apparent was stemming from a deeply hidden
ironic twist where Dylan had been on record saying that if his songs were to be
used in advertising he would want to sell women’s undergarments.
Despite the obvious shock value that one gets from a
commercial like that there are other reasons businesses make arguments about
their products or services. Often policy makers will try and persuade you with
pathos: a emotional reaction towards visual, auditory stimulation. Like policy
against drunk driving where you have a picture of a empty chair at a family
gathering and say there words: “Drunk Driving during the holidays kills 30,000
people every year.” The image says that that empty seat would be filled with a person
if they hadn’t or if someone hadn’t drank and drove.
Organizations will also use ethos – someone who is of
authority on the matter being discussed – as a method of persuasion. When you
see the doctors at the end of the skin care adds, they are a supposed licenses
physician who approves the product for consumer use. There are a millions of situations where these
techniques are used to argue.
The analysis of the reading can be broken down to two
things. What we are observing in an arguments and how we can understand how
they relate to the situation. I think that I really enjoyed these chapters
because it makes you second-guess what is being funneled into our eyes and
hears and mouth. We are being exposed to it all the time and we seldom ever ask
why things are the way they are. Why my coke is red. Why Barak Obama says what
he says. Why I am wearing my shoes. How we got here is a series of arguments
and we aligned with and now we are the physical embodiment.
Thoughts?
The media has a phenomenal amount of influence on society. As much as advertisers react to what we the people want, or think we need, and produce it, there are channels of influence and shape what we value or the genres we associate ourselves.
ReplyDeleteRelating to the example you mentioned that was in our text about how Lady Gaga, Kanya West, or whatever other Pop Mogul is associated with an image---a persona that may or may not be real. Generally, it is not real, like you saying.
The persona stems from the brand they represent which at the end of the day pays them a lot of money. $$$ So my conclusion is this, that we as the audience have to realize what these media figures really represent and their motive behind it. Is it sincere? Is it true? Why? Anyway, I liked how you dissected this part of how branding is used and how we as the consumers should be aware of the real motives behind certain campaigns.
-Hannah Coop
Kyran,
ReplyDeleteLiked how you showed the ways different organizations use different rhetoric in different way, by picking a drunk driving ad to show Pathos and the ad with a doctor to show Ethos. Great closing with the idea that we take so much in without question what we have been exposed to.