Sketch..

How many of you were basically forced to fill out a survey in the beginning of whatever lecture hall class with questions like
"Are you competitive?"
"Are your goals in life oriented around success?"
"Do you want to make lots of money this summer?"
And then of course you have to write down your name and email and sooner or later some guys is calling you about some internship over the summer and you find yourself sitting at a table at the hub with other a couple other kids hearing about this AWESOME internship?

Okay, so maybe you haven't experienced all that, maybe you've only filled out the questionaire. In my case though, I went up to just about there. I didn't go any further.

Here's when you know it's sketch. They just throw some big numbers out at you like "this one guy made 15,000 dollars in one summer!" Or they just tell you what you'll get out of it at the end, "You're going to come out of our program with self discipline and tools for success!" In fact, they fill you up with all these numbers, principles and motivational messages about their program that you forget that you still don't know what the program is.

It took me a survey, a phone call, and half a meeting until I found out what I'd be doing. Pedaling from door to door.

They did such a good job selling this to me that I didn't even walk away because I thought it was sketchy, or that I didn't think it was a legitimate program. I walked away because motivational speakers with "how to be a winner" messages reminded me too much of the Dad from Little Miss Sunshine. I kinda came from the type of family that despite having a strong competitive streak still had the "in our house, everyone is a winner!" philosophy.

I called my Dad and told him what I had experienced. He looked it up on Wikipedia right away.
"Em, this is so sketchy. They make you buy all the materials wholesale and you're paid based on commission. They make it seem like you have little to no living expenses but that's far from the truth. So many universities have banned them from recruiting at their schools."

I had been duped. And the poor kid next to me who was all game for the "internship" had been too. I've been looking out for him on campus this week just so I can warn him! ROBBIE IF YOU'RE OUT THERE, GET OUT WHILE YOU CAN!

So how did they do this? Imagine if they had told me that I was going door to door to sell some educational materials before they had told me about all the principles the program is built on and the money I'd (maybe) be making. Imagine if they had called it pedaling instead of "professionally selling educational materials to families in their homes." Imagine if they gave me statistics for everyone in the internship program instead of the five or six success stories. I'd be out within the first 5 minutes. All the strategic word choice, formatting and even the person they chose was all orchestrated to suck me into an unethical program,

The point is-->here is the rhetoric we all thought was "bad" at the beginning of the year. This is the kind of trickery we fear, and why we accuse politicians of using rhetoric as if it's a bad thing. This is where rhetoric gets that sneaky connotation.

Go ahead and wiki Southwestern Company.

Bumpersticker Rhetoric

What are you saying  when you have a bumper sticker on your car? You're saying you have something that you believe in enough to share with all the other drivers on the road. You're constantly asking to be evaluated by them as well. I understand if you happen have a bumper sticker on your car maybe that's not what you think it means or what you intended it to mean. But I challenge you to put yourself in the shoes of the person who is driving behind you in their car and re-think the meaning of your bumper sticker. 

Let's say you see someone with a Penn State sticker (pretty typical around here). Your thought process might go like this "They must be an alumni, student, or staff member if they have a Penn State sticker on their car! They must really love Penn State as much as I do." Safe assumption right? You kinda start to like the car in front of you.

But what if it was an Ohio sticker...or a Michigan one? AND they forget to put on their blinker AND they kinda roll through a stop sign. "An Ohio fan totally would do that" you might say to yourself. You kinda start to hate the car in front of you. 

So what does yours say? Is it a more serious, political belief that you hold close to heart? Is it a funny one? Does it use lots of swear words? Does it insult a population within our community even in the slightest? 

Don't get me wrong, I have  nothing against bumper stickers. In fact, I have one myself. But when choosing your next bumper sticker consider how the person behind you will evaluate you and if that even matters to you.  Carefully select the  bumper sticker that you're okay with representing you and your beliefs. It can be tricky, but I think it's definitely worthwhile. 

Terry Tait: Office Linebacker

Okay. So we've all seen this and we've all laughed. But can you tell me which brand it's for?
So watch it now looking for any hint of Reebok. There's the symbols on his jersey, his necklace, and Reebok is embedded into the url at the end.

If I thought that the ad was actually trying to sell the brand I would say that the ad is not effective because the humor dominated it. But, I don't think that. I don't think they were trying to sell the brand directly through the ad.

They took advantage of the new age of technology. To see an ad, you don't have to wait for it to play in between programming segments on TV. You can plug it right into a search engine and watch as many times as you would like.

I remember when every one was showing each other this ad. My teachers were playing it in class, it was up on everyone's facebook stati, it was circulating via email threads.

They needed people to find them on the internet. They needed Reebok to pop up next to "office linebacker" in your google search results, hence the URL address at the end of the video. The message wasn't in the ad, the message is what you get later when you follow up on it. So, in this case, with this strategy, it's okay to use ridiculous amounts of humor. It has to be funny enough that you look for it again.  Reebok was definitely counting on this follow up for success.

A unique strategy. Props to Reebok.

So..where are the clothes you're modeling?

Disclaimer: I was totally going to write about this for my RCL blog BEFORE we discussed it in class.

For Christmas, my grandmother got me this pink extra small cardigan with chiffon flaps on the front. It was from Abercrombie and Fitch and it wasn't exactly my style. I knew that if I exchanged it and if I looked around the store hard enough I would find a couple of things without a big moose (their logo) taking over the entire clothing item or a few pairs of jeans without any "pre-wear-and-tear" additions to them. That's a whole 'nother rhetorical situation in itself! Being a walking advertisement isn't really my thing.

Anyways, it had been a while since I had been in a store like that and I took some mental notes and took some mental pictures. It was dark in there, the lighting was flattering. Some how I fit into size 0 jeans (definitely NOT my size at other stores). There were naked men above the jean section, the fragrance section and the sweater section alike. There weren't too many seasonal items- all the flowery skirts, tank tops and shorts were still out and not even on sale.

Then I looked down at the staff's feet. Sandals.

It occurred to me then that they are required to promote an image. The lighting, the nakedness, the summery feel all promoted the A&F image.

As you can see in the ad, the naked man is in front of the name of the store. It suggests that they no longer have to promote their name-that's not their concern- they have to promote their style. It's an image that you can't exactly describe with one or even a few words. Summery yet preppy, indie yet trendy. Too cool for stress, yet too sophisticated for not taking life seriously.

So with all the ads that are 75% shirtless male and 10% clothes and 15% background, they obviously aren't showcasing the clothes; they're showcasing who wears them. It doesn't matter that the clothes look great on them, what matters is that those people are cool- they're in black and white looking like they've got it all figured out, or just absolutely loving life. Whoever is in those ads is what A&F decided is a great embodiment of their image.

They work very hard to make you feel like you are a great embodiment of their image as well. They want you to feel good about yourself. I admit, I did feel a little skinnier when I found out that I can still fit into a size 0. The light hits you just right, hiding what you don't want to see and showing off what you've got to flaunt. You're feeling good as you check yourself out in the mirror and they're hoping that the association between your happiness and the clothes on your back will keep growing stronger with every second you stare.

And really, from a marketing stand point, it's brilliant.

I Believe in Bananagrams

This I Believe Podcast

http://www.zshare.net/download/8604855321cdadca/