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/

"Whatever."

We've all used it. Whatever.

We've used it as a short response to Mom who told us something like "oh, I see you're not wearing very many clothes to school today" or "don't you think you're...uh... hangin' out of that top a bit?" as we came down the stairs for breakfast one morning.

We've used it to leave our options open, or to escape making a decision. "What do you guys want to do tonight?" Then, "Whatever! It's up to you."

We've used it to expose the trivialness in the obviously ridiculous statement someone just made. "Okay, WHAT.EVER. That doesn't even make sense!"

We've used it to deflect a personal attack. "I think you're being ridiculous right now." "Whatever."

Here's urban dictionary's take"

Whatever

A polite and less vulgar alternative to "FUCK YOU".

Jack: "Wow, what happend to you? You look like hell today!" 

Jill: "Whatever"

I'm sure you've heard it a million different times in a million different ways. But the point is, what does "whatever" really mean? It's one of the few words that been so stripped of its denotational value and is almost always evaluated based on its connotation whenever it's used in a sentence.

I don't know about you, but whenever some one says, "Whatever" and that's it, a red flag goes up. Time to negotiate, time to try and cheer them up.

So is that what it is? A plead for something more?
I don't know.
Whatever.

An Audience that Doesn't Want to Listen

I don't know about the rest of you- but have you ever had someone advertise an exciting trip to Australia, or a new study abroad program, or a summer internship at the beginning of one of your classes? After asking the professor if it's okay, they proceed to throw stats and figures at you, jump around a little bit and then high tail it out of there so not to make the professor angry that they're taking up so much class time. You, the audience, on the other hand, have just been hit by a truck and now some sign up sheet is being passed around your 500 person class and there's only one name on it and you're at the back.

So-why doesn't this work? What interrupts the connection between the speaker and the audience? I think it's a number of factors.

First of all, the audience didn't come to class that day to hear that speaker talk. This doesn't mean they won't eventually be interested, but it does interrupt the engagement part of the civic engagement process.

Second of all, the speaker is most likely speeding through their sales pitch to get out of that professor's way. They're operating under a time constraint. When this happens, advertisements don't have time to persuade you on a logical basis- they rely on peripheral processing. They're counting on you to skip the reasoning and to remember the "zips and the zaps" of the speech that can be seen as tone inflection, buzz words like "opportunity" and "adventure."

Where does this leave you? Well usually I'm just confused and feeling like I don't have enough information and when they ask "any questions?" they scan the room real quick and then say, "great, thanks for your time! So then I think, "Ah screw it," and the stress of actively processing something is done and over...until the beginning of my next class.