COMM 274: Rhetoric at TLU

This blog will be filled with data analysis samples created by students in my COMM 274 class at TLU. You will see a variety of types of rhetorical analysis methods on display here.

Links to rhetorical tools:

Here are links to the rhetorical tools used in this class:

Schemes & Tropes -- Perelman & Olbrechts-Tyteca -- Fallacies -- Burke -- Rhetorical Toolbox -- Conspiracy Rhetorics

Monday, January 25, 2016

Andrea Rogan - Pepsi Ad

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Andrea Rogan
Communications 274 – Rhetoric
January 24, 2016

Pepsi Ad Analysis
Schemes:
Omission
Asyndeton
Omission of conjunctions
This ad has two lists and there are no conjunctions. (“getting outdoors, getting more out of life.” And “for light, bracing, clean-tasting Pepsi.”
Emphatics
Diacope
Emphatic repetition after an intervening phrase.
“getting more out of life. Call it thinking young. This is the life…”
Arrangement
Climax
Ordered by increasing importance
Light, bracing, clean-tasting
Repetition
Epistrophe
Repetition of words at the end of clauses.
Think or thinking young – used three times. They do this to emphasize that if you drink Pepsi, you will feel and act younger.
Parallelism
Parallelism
Similarity in structure in phrases or clauses
Ends with two imperative sentences: “Think young. Say “Pepsi, please!”

Visual:
Color
Hue
Identification of the colors
The main color in this ad is blue.  There is also some red, white and yellow.  Reinforces the American theme of red, white and blue; and an outdoor theme of blue, sunny skies.

Value
The lightness or darkness of a color
The colors in this ad are medium. The background and the rope are a light blue. Everything else seems to be a medium shade.

Saturation
The purity or vividness or depth of a color.
The colors in this ad appear to be very vivid.  They seem to be intense, just like colors feel like on an intense sunny day. It reminds you of the days in your childhood when life was intense and good.
Light
High contrast
Bright lights and dark shadows.
The lights are very bright and there appears to be lots of reflection on her face. The reflected lights remind me of being at the beach and having a great day in the sun. It is also a sense of goodness.
Perspective
Flat
No illusion of depth.
There is a little depth shown in the ad, but we are so close to the model’s face that there is not much depth. It is a close-up of the all-American girl having fun.  It implies that if you have a Pepsi, you can join her.
Diagonals
Oblique
The image seems unstable and pulled to the side
The image is close to balance but it is slightly tilted towards the right.  It pulls the reader’s eye down towards the Pepsi logo in yellow.
Space
Closed
The tops and sides feel enclosed, trapped.
There is very little empty space in this ad. It almost feels like they cropped it a little too close in. If you think about being young, it is a time when life is full of fun and adventures. The fullness of this add seems to imply that the young have a full life.
Focus
Focalizers
Are figures or colors or spaces used to pull the eye across the image?
The red and white of her mouth pull your eye to the center and to the Pepsi logo on the bottle. The rope pulls your eye down to the Pepsi logo.
Angle
Eye-level
Are we even with them?
We are looking the model directly in the eye.  This seems to say that we can all be like her.
Implied Distance
Close-up
Is the subject one person’s face?
This is a very close-up shot.
Figures
Representationality
To what extent does the image show “things” we can identify?
The main model looks like an all-American girl/woman of the 1960s. She has blue eyes, light brown hair, dimples, freckles and a big smile.  
The rope belongs to either a swing or a boat; things that have to do with the outdoors and being young and energetic.
Genre
Icons
Are there key symbols or characters that call to mind a narrative or genre.
The girl model calls to mind the All-American girl.  The female and male together call to mind the Kennedy’s and their young, energetic, athletic image.

Type
Stroke-height ratio
How thick are the lines in the type in comparison to the height of the letters?

It appears to be a 1 to 3 ratio.  To the naked eye, it appears to be very regular and normal.
Stroke weight
How varied are the weights of the different strokes? What are the thickness differences between various marks in a letter?

There appears to be a constant stroke weight – no variance at all. It is a very clean, simple look.
The only variation is for the two Pepsi logos shown – the one on the bottle and the one on the bottle cap.
It think this is emphasizing the young theme.  Young children print and read simple fonts.  This subtly reinforces the idea of returning to youth.
Style
Bold? Italic? Narrow? Condensed? All caps?

The text appears to be bold and in a slight italic.
On the first line, the only capitalized word is Pepsi.  For the rest of the add, the grammar is normal.  
Emphasis
Color? Underlining? Animated?

The first line is a medium blue and echoes the main color in the ad. It also has the phrase “think young” underlined.

The rest of the words are in a medium green that reminds one of freshness and summer, like a freshly cut lawn or something.
Family
Sans serif
Without lines to link the letters
The type looks a lot like printing, which helps reinforce the young idea.
Spacing
Tracking
Spaces between letters along a line of text.
The spaces appear to be even.  It is easy to read.

Leading
Spacing between lines of text.
The spaces between the lines of text are very small – the text appears to be dense, just like the picture.
Family
What historical grouping does the font belong to? Is it typical?
Old style, transitional, modern, Bauhaus, etc.
It looks similar to Calibri, which is a modern font. The y, r and g are a little more complex in looks, like they would have been in the 1960s.
Legibility
The font itself

The font is very easy to read.


 

 
 

Displaying PEPSI AD!!.pdf.
Posted by Andrea Rogan at 5:40 PM
Labels: devices & figures & scheme & tropes

3 comments:

  1. Thomas William SnooksJanuary 25, 2016 at 9:10 PM

    Do you think the asyndeton and lack of capitalization in the first line (except for in "Pepsi") create a feeling of 'youthful hurried-ness' in the ad?
    Or, on the capitalization of said line, is it rather that "Pepsi" is simply so much more important than the rest, that it stole the right to be capitalized from the "Now" because timing doesn't matter?

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  2. UnknownJanuary 27, 2016 at 12:18 PM

    A question that can be brought up is the face of the women. Why is a women especially white one the focalized of the ad. The red white blue is an interesting idea. Do you think the ad would have worked if it was a Mexican or Black person on it?

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  3. UnknownJanuary 29, 2016 at 10:23 AM

    Great analysis. This Ad is appealing to young people saying "think young" with a carefree All American woman as the poster child. A question I would pose is what if they advertised with a normal looking woman? Race wouldn't matter to me... Does she have to be unrealistic?

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