The Rhetoric of Reputation

Abortion has caused a whirlwind of controversy when people discuss whether or not the act is ethical or an abomination of mankind. In this video, the anonymous creator appeals to the audience through visual representation, strategically place Bible verses, and a song with compelling lyrics, in hopes of establishing their outrage and disgust with abortion. Although the creator of the video is unknown, it was posted on youtube by user stringoftruth, who has posted many videos discussing and defending the Christian faith and creed. Though the video shares no verbal opinion, it is evident that the author and user that posted the video wish to persuade others to rethink their viewpoints toward abortion, and see “the truth,” that will “set them free.”

In a Public Service Announcement presented by the Ad Council, The Robertson Foundation, and the Environmental Defense group, appeals are made with the goal of motivating viewers to take action against the issue of global warming. This is a visual argument presented originally to television viewers under the assumption that the main audience consisted typically of older viewers who might respond to the use of emotional appeals, or pathos, including fear, anxiety, and concern over the future of “our” children.

The fact that this is a video argument affects the way in which the arguments are presented, and, if it were presented as a still image, several major adjustments would need to be made. For example, if this were presented in the form of a poster, the audio dialogue would need to be represented in the form of visual text along with the visual text that is already used in the video, and emotions, such as fear and anxiety, would be more difficult to evoke in the viewer. Some of the audio dialogue and background audio present in the video includes the repeated voices of children whispering the word “tick” along with the coinciding tick of a clock, as well as the resounding of somewhat ominous music. This continues throughout the video and ultimately ends in crescendo. The use of such audio creates a feeling of anxiety in the viewer, which is accompanied by the emotion of fear when the same children begin listing natural disasters and weather anomalies. The tick of the clock, the whispered “ticks,” and the rapid shifting from one child’s face to another suggests the idea that time is running out, and viewers are then presented with one child stating “our future is up to you.” This is a call to action against global warming which is represented by the destructive weather anomalies, and the final idea that viewers are left with is to visit fightglobalwarming.com in order to take action against global warming.

Krista Luke
This blog entry is about the video “Truth-Body Bags Ad” whose link is
YouTube
other links include
The Sunny Side of Truth
Tobacco Free

This commercial/ public service announcement was created by the organization “Truth,” an anti-smoking campaign company. The organization advertises the negative affects of smoking cigarettes. The ad itself shows twelve hundred body bags (the number of people that die a day from cigarettes) outside of a major tobacco company. The people who created this ad intended its effects to be that of change—they wanted the audience to see this commercial and change their lives. If they smoked, the “Truth” organization wanted then to quit; if they did not, they wanted them to be inspired to help others they know to quit. “Truth” also wanted the tobacco companies to see their ad and feel guilty for creating a product that is a known killer.

Ron Paul’s campaign ad We Have the Answer is a video about how America is a nation that stumbles at sometimes but we can pick ourselves up again. The video contains many clips that portray everyday life and some of the problems that are occurring.

Everybody can relate to music, whether it is lyrics to a song or the music itself. People express emotions and portray messages through music, and when lyrics come from a speech, like Senator Obama’s you have two powerful tools that argue a specific point. This YouTube video, “Yes We Can” combines both of these components, music and speech and convinces the viewer to become interested in what Obama’s speech entails. The lyrics to the song are from a portion of Obama’s speech on January 8, 2008 in Nashua, New Hampshire. Celebrities like Will.i.am from The Black Eyed Peas, John Legend, Scarlett Johansson and many others sang the words of Barack Obama’s speech in this video. It was submitted by username WeCan08 on February 2nd, 2008 it was not submitted by the Barack Obama campaign.

Voting for the best candidate for President can be hard when you don’t know anything about them. Political advertisements try to get the viewers to consider the message that is being thrown out at them. The Obama For America campaign does an impressive job of describing Obama’s early life choices.

Winston Berryhill wrb289
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This video was written by Ernest Cline who has his own website. It makes a point to tell the public humans are no different from other animals, describes how humans are similar to primates, and what humans do to differentiate themselves from the rest of the animal kingdom. This video reminds the public we are just animals and suggests that we are not special.

“We interrupt your hopes of entertainment with a message.” Reputable YouTube user Boh3m3 posted a video mid 2006 that stood out from the other content he was producing. The video, “Message,” made a vague argument against censorship that mostly employed pathos appeals. He chose to use the video medium specifically, shot in low-contrast black and white, and utilized a form of montage to cross cut between footage and text. The content of both the text and images similarly played a role in evoking and appealing to certain emotions.

Kleenex 'Let It Out' Commercial

The commercial that is embedded above is one for Kleenex brand tissues. Its purpose is to make you, the viewer, want to buy Kleenex tissues. The aim of the visual part of the commercial is evoke emotions in the viewer that are usually associated with using a tissue.

The 2008 presidential campaign has featured a wide variety of campaign ads, using several types of rhetorical appeals. One ad, however, takes a different approach from all the others. Rather than using fear tactics or mudslinging to gather support, humor is used as a type of emotional appeal to persuade voters to select Governor Mike Huckabee as their candidate of choice.