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

Sunday, January 28, 2018

Evel Knievel 1976 Ideal Toy Corp. analysis


Schemes
-assonance

The constant of vowels that are laid out amongst the ad within the catch line and the captivation ties in the “catchiness”
Tropes
Exaggeration through the phrases of the subtext. It helps reveal the thrill to the intended audience which ties into the nature of toy’s background.

"Evel" origanted from Evil. Sense of thrill  -Attachment to advertised figure.
Visual
-eye level: given the perspective to see the figure as if they were right in the site. Provides to the demonstration of the toy.
-High contrast: Dark shadows help give the depth to the figures, which leads to the captivation of the essence. The red white and blue are the repetition of colors reiterating the intended appeal to the intended audience in the given period.
Style
-All Caps and Bold title. Gives automatic appeal with the use of repeated colors.
-spacing: more of whiter spaces within subtext for extra info. Not important for bringing in audience as much as informing by this point.

LEGO Ad: What it is is beautiful.









Play_Doh Analysis



Bold Text
The words Look at all the friends you can make with Play-Doh! are in bold as it is the major selling point of the add. The add has all big names that children love: Darth Vader, Big Bird, Fred Flintstone and Strawberry Shortcake. The goal of this ad is to make children feel like if they get Play-Doh all these characters will be their friends (I question why Darth Vader is included as a ‘friend’ but what the hell do I know?
Open Space
Around the characters there is a lot of open space to the left and right of the ad. It could just be coincidental but my best interpretation of it is the idea that if you buy Play-Doh, you will have your place alongside the likes of these characters to the right by Fred of to the left by Strawberry Shortcake. After all, who in at least one point in their life hasn't wanted to have a casual chat with one of these characters
Geometric
The only depth perception within the ad is the relationship between the characters and the Play-Doh. The characters are tucked neatly behind the Play-Doh to emphasize that although they are apart of what you get with it, the Play-Doh is still the primary focus of the ad. Even characters that are far taller than the Play-Doh like Big Bird are still hidden behind it
Medium Shot
The Medium Shot is important for this ad as we are dealing with big, identifiable names. We don't want to be looking up at characters like Big Bird or Darth Vader from the ground up, but at a view where all the characters are identifiable, especially with characters with faces as identifiable as these! 
Low Contrast
Every character in the photo is brightly drawn, including Darth Vader who could've easily been far less bright than he is in the photo. Play-Doh is a children's toy which makes the brightly colored ad very understandable 
Eye Level
All characters are at eye level, looking directly at the kid they are aimed for. It's standard advertising practice that kids mascots be facing the kids, which is why cereal mascots are almost always looking down on the box. This ad isn't an exception 
Foreground, Background
 As explained before, the characters are in the background selling the product which is the focus in the foreground

PlaySkool Tape Recorder Ad




Strawberry Shortcake Ad



Fisher Price Ad: Small Town

Alright, so I'm not sure what happened to the original picture that was here, but it worked when I opened it on my end, but I re-posted it! I hope this works! Sorry, but it is a little blurry.

Text
The large, bold text at the top of the page drawers the reader’s eyes to the top, then slowly allows the reader’s eyes to work down to the bottom of the page through the use of smaller text and descriptions
Space
The space of the advertisement is very closed, thus creating the feeling of being in a small town that is very closed in on itself and closed off from the rest of the world
Genre
The neighborhood play set being the focal-point of the advertisement pushes the idea of family and living in a tight-knit neighborhood
Framing
The frame is extremely full, thus strengthening the idea of being in a small town. Everything can be seen at once
Colors
The red and yellow of the advertisement and the toys gives the toy line a very home-y feeling and makes the add seem very calm and welcoming
Angle
The entire advertisement sits at eye level and doesn’t have much depth to it, but it allows the reader to process everything
Generalization
The use of the term “little people” generalizes the whole population of children to even out boys and girls, and children from different backgrounds
Balance
While the advertisement is top-heavy, it is fairly balanced from left to right and makes the entire advertisement more pleasing to the viewer

Saturday, January 27, 2018

LEGO Ad: Build Pride


Repetition- polysyndeton
There is a frequent use of the words like “universal”, “anything” and “whatever they want” emphasizing the idea that with LEGOs you can let your imagination run wild and let your creativity take over.

Additionally, the ad makes several references to “children” not specifying a gender or using he/she pronouns. This reiterates LEGO’s initiative since the 1960’s to make a toy set “for both boys and girls”. (Perhaps an additional reference to the frequent use of “universal” in the ad)

Paraprosdokian- The latter part of a sentence causes the audience to rethink the first part.
“LEGO toys build anything. Especially pride.”
The last segment refocuses the emphasis of what they are “building”. It’s not the toy or specific items that the child makes that matters, it’s the pride in creating.
We can see this in the expressions of the children themselves as they hold their creations with obvious pride.

Exaggeration/hyperbole-using exaggerated terms for effect

“And big children or small, whatever they build with LEGO will make them feel 10 feet tall”. This uses exaggeration to once again convey the idea that children’s imaginations can run wild and they will take pride in their creations.
And since most children will not read the fine print on such ads, or even comprehend most of the text, these themes are meant to speak to the parents of children, perhaps to remind them of their own days as children in efforts to encourage the purchase of the product for their own children.

Flat- No illusion of depth
The picture is rather focused on the two children and offers no other dimensions really. The background is empty and solid colored.

Balanced- The image is symmetrical and stable.
The image is centered on the ad quite nicely. Both the boy and girl are evenly set, with no preference to one or the other. This is quite obviously in tune with LEGOs intent on making their toys gender neutral and their ads all-inclusive.

Empty space- There are few figures in the frame or is much white space.
The background is empty. Not trying to tell a story with background context or design. Instead, LEGO is trying to portray a feeling or image in that moment. It just focuses on the children and their LEGOS

Long Shots
We see the full picture of the two children focusing on their position slightly crouched on the floor as if they had just finished creating. They hold up their creations, which are also rather gender neutral (just vehicles-no girly playhouse or female characters for the girl)

Font
The main text is bold and a crisp white, obviously to draw the eye-almost before even viewing the image on the ad itself. If the viewer sees the bold text first, it may influence their perception of the image itself once they look at it.

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

PLAYSKOOL Ad: Bessy and Dan


Error-Enallage: intentional grammar misuse – or in this case, incorrect spelling.
The company’s name, PLAYSKOOL, uses the spelling error to emphasize that the company is advertising towards the younger audience. It grabs the attention of the parents buying the product, like, “hey, this looks like a fun toy for my preschool aged child!”
Repetition: the repeating of words to emphasize a central point.
This ad uses the word play a lot. “rough play”, “practice while they play”, and “playing is learning”. This appeals to the parents because they want for their children to learn, and learn in a way that is fun.
Parallelism: similarity in structure in phrases or clauses.
“Dressy Bessy” and “Dapper Dan” are easy names to remember because the words and letters used are so similar. What child, or even the parents, are going to forget this?
Color-saturation: the purity or vividness or depth of a color
The vividness of the colors on the clothes and in the diagrams, both on the doll and the girl, draw attention to how much fun the toy could be. It suggests a fun, happy time to learn. The girl is also much more colorful that the boy, suggesting gender stereotypes. Girls get color and variety, boys get browns and greys.
Perspective- geometric:
The little girl is in the foreground and the boy is in the background being slightly covered with the girl’s doll. Perhaps this is to show that it is more important for girls to know how to dress well, or that girls will have more interest in playing with a doll. But it still suggests that both genders are welcome to play/learn.
Diagonals- balanced:
Everything in this ad, the words, diagrams, and logo are centered. The ad looks clean and neat. It crosses over with the names of the dolls, “Dressy Bessy” and “Dapper Dan”.
Angle- eye level:
We are seeing this ad at eye level. It shows the way the children would be seeing the dolls and shows the parents the way they will see their children learning/playing,
Type- style and family
Bold and condensed type forces the ones reading it to focus on those parts first. It is saying, “look at me! I am important!” And the smaller serif type print is giving you an explanation of why it is so important. And going back to the logo, novelty family, it implies that this a special kind of children’s toy. Maybe having a comparison to your own child’s cognitive abilities at the time, and it makes you more likely to pick it up for your preschool aged child.

Ads for class 1/24

Monday, January 22, 2018

Ads to discuss in class 1/22

Ads to Choose from for first project

First-come, first-served. Only one person can do each ad. Use the comment feature to claim your ad. I

1. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/14/01/94/1401945e3fbbf789b55c6e3b59251d91.jpg

2. https://i.pinimg.com/736x/ea/3a/cb/ea3acb5212c28665b419c691502e5135.jpg

3. http://pzrservices.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451ccbc69e20120a68a2a67970c-400wi

4. http://file.vintageadbrowser.com/l-7yckke236og6vk.jpg

5. http://file.vintageadbrowser.com/l-ji1bwk0z31n6id.jpg

6. http://neatdesigns.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/433.jpg

7. https://i.pinimg.com/736x/92/64/b2/9264b2e4435cd91c87566437f7dbead4--vintage-hot-wheels-vintage-advertisements.jpg

8. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/29/30/b2/2930b2e006c753c4bfdd69a4adb8b443.jpg

9. http://news.missourimilitaryacademy.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/xwAsW56.jpg

10. https://battleram.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/wish.jpg?w=1000

11. https://i.pinimg.com/474x/86/18/5d/86185da8a8dea1fc51b9b9de2cae80b0--strawberry-shortcake-doll-magazine-ads.jpg

12. https://c1.staticflickr.com/6/5542/11061244495_7c7f22be0a_b.jpg

13. http://neatdesigns.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/290.jpg

14. https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD9HF9O_4io8vWIzoUw9gWrCCIKR2vyAa8OqcuwFbHVv56W1G-CovbzkwEjsxKqTEtzhMLweiqBYuDQkgBdXGY-2TIcfw2O9zA2hZw20c-A2lUSTqVFiyJcgYaW7LCGmPpkzU3j8noO6A/s1600/Amethyst+v2+10+(1985)+36.jpg

15. https://i.pinimg.com/736x/dd/52/e3/dd52e3c9814a7905c9495cdb76866b4e--the-karate-kid-s-toys.jpg

16. http://pzrservices.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451ccbc69e20120a633a285970b-pi

17. https://flashbak.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/barbie.jpg

18. http://file.vintageadbrowser.com/l-7w2go0kiyqqflc.jpg

19. http://file.vintageadbrowser.com/94c1irt3n4s4q4.jpg

20. http://www.plaidstallions.com/images/tl/bionicmad.jpg

21. https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrlqvKr2nCATGIXlsvptbgNTBJtLgKAr8dTGAjir0prDdIFOpc3zSlE8PqexZyomcWkGr2OFtwGjIzvNeTYuqZovvI8mCrlDTQrotef1O6I-7mbopSo0tS_d-6Yr7rzS8hb5yiZjdpQODy/s1600/Hot+Wheels+Rod+Runner+-+Old+Hot+Wheels+ads.jpg

22. http://www.magazine-advertisements.com/uploads/2/1/8/4/21844100/hasbro-shuffletown-farm-1.jpg

23. http://www.magazine-advertisements.com/uploads/2/1/8/4/21844100/tonka-mighty-dump-truck-1.jpg

24. http://www.magazine-advertisements.com/uploads/2/1/8/4/21844100/playskool-casey-cassette-player-1.jpg

25. http://www.magazine-advertisements.com/uploads/2/1/8/4/21844100/playskool-alphie-robot-1.jpg

26. http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7193/6780040706_f188fb9edc_o.jpg

27. http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7193/6926157503_b7cbb0b08e_o.jpg

28. http://file.vintageadbrowser.com/l-rnfkg1iamp39rh.jpg

29. https://1dcem613f5v8509f13ajfcqx-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/toys-1978-fisher-price-baby-vintage-ad.jpg

30. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a8/8c/d0/a88cd0234f26ec50a9597b1e4f70901c.jpg