MEDT 7490 Visual and Media Literacy for Teaching and Learning

Rhetoric.
Pathos was evident throughout. The opening scene, where a couple are walking to
their car evokes stress. The man is holding several shopping bag, multiple are pink of
course implying they are the womans purchases. The woman is on her phone. It seems
as though she is talking her mother through a tech issue. Both seem slightly stressed, until
the woman is able to assist the man by utilizing the handless opening feature. Suddenly,
the tone is much more relaxed. Another example of pathos can be found in the images of
happy couples browsing new cars with their children evoke positive feelings. The
weather is beautiful and everyone is smiling as they walk through the lot. Seeing the flash
of a nuclear family, with kids happily exploring the back of a new car appeals to the
emotional investment people have in their children.
Logos was also present. By advertising prices, as well as financing opportunities,
the ad appeals to the potential buyers logic. The ad also highlighted several features that
would appeal to the potential buyers practicality, including the handless door hatch and
amount of space. While the ad does not come right out and say what the features are and
what they do, they did show them in use.

Overall message.
The products being sold are Ford brand cars. There is no specific model being
sold, but the commercial highlights The Ford Summer Sales Event. The goal is to get
individuals in based on the sale, and then try to sell them a specific car (foot in the door
technique).
At the beginning of the commercial, a couple is going to their car. The man is
holding the bags whilst the woman talks on her phone. The man is struggling with getting
the bags in the car and is seeking assistance from the woman. She walks over, while
continuing her phone conversation, and uses her foot to open to back of the car,
illustrated a feature of the car.
The commercial is set in what appears to be an affluent area, based on the
appearance of the shopping area and caf. It is set in the summer. Characters interact
outside of a shopping area and the rest is comprised of aerial and full, medium, long, and
close shots of people browsing the car collection at a Ford dealership.
The people in the commercial are all mid 20s-mid 40s in age. They are well-
dressed in summer attire. The people are in heteronormative couples and the family
showed was nuclear.

Production:
Having the characters well dressed, but not overly so, implies that this product is
meant for people who view themselves as middle class. The cultural codes imply that if
you want to experience the full American dream, then a new car is essential. The purpose
of the commercial was to portray an idealized way of life, and offer up the new cars as an
element of that ideal. The creators want to viewers to see their cars as an accessory to the
cultural image of perceived perfection that they are perpetrating.
Distribution.
I chose this commercial because it seemed unremarkable. It looked like eve car
Ive ever seen. This commercial was shown during Good Morning America on
6/26/2017. Good Morning America comes on at 7am and is a 2 hour show. Based on this,
I think the target audience would be professionals getting ready to leave for work. Having
a 2 hour run time means that a large portion of working professionals will be able to view
at least a portion of the show before leaving for work. Based on the age of people in the
ad, I would put the target age group as 25-50. I think they show the commercial at this
time because the target audience is about to get in their cars in order to drive to work.
Having the commercial fresh in their mind as they walk to their own vehicles allows for
an unintentional mental comparison between the shiny new cars seen in the ad and the
owners current one. I checked ABCs schedule and Good Morning America comes on 7
days a week at this time. This means that the commercial would also potentially air as
people are on their way out to run weekend errands. I think this is why they included the
first scene, of the couple bringing shopping bags to their car. I think the target audience
for this ad is also heterosexual. Every customer in the ad is part of a heterosexual couple.

Persuasive techniques.
Non-diegetic sound was used throughout. Mood music was played during the
entire commercial and an unseen narrator talked about the cars as on screen characters
moved around happily, appearing to interact with one another. We hear no direct sound
from the characters. This sound perpetrates the underlying message that buying a new car
from Ford, will make you happier.
The pace and tempo were fast to create an excited rushed feeling. The tempo of
the mood music set the pace, and the message that the sale was for a limited time added
to the urgency of the message. The narrators tone conveyed an informal tone and voice
inflection worked to highlight key words, like the slogan Americas Best Selling
Brand. This slogan is also an example of the bandwagon technique, join the crowd. The
use of the music and beautiful weather add to the propaganda technique, euphoria. All of
this worked to convey the message that having a new car will contribute to overall
happiness and cultural success.

Reflection
Growing up in south Atlanta, I was slightly aware of cultural and racial bias is
media pretty early. I causally noticed that people in commercials tended to look like me,
but not many of my friends. Being the one reflected meant that I did not think about it as
deeply as those negatively affected/ alienated. I noticed in this commercial as well that
racial diversity was wanting. I now live in north Georgia. I worked in my old
neighborhood while living here, and I noticed while commuting that billboard ads
depicted the perceived dominate racial make-up of the areas they are in. I suppose this
could translate to viewership as well. One would think however that a national
commercial would be concerned with representing as many populations as possible, but
that was not the case.
As I got older, I was very aggravated by gender stereotypes in media. I have four
brothers, so Ive always had to fight against gender discrimination, and seeing girls and
woman portrayed as unintelligent, sex objects, solely responsible for home and child
care, and frivolous bothered me greatly. After watching this commercial several times, I
found myself seeing a lot of those same themes, just done in a more subtle way. Again,
the pink bags imply the woman is the shopper. Ignoring the pink issue, the idea that
only woman purchase goods and men are only good for manual support is outdated.
The man is presented as helpless without the wife to save him, which she did using a
feature youd think he know about, is also insulting and outdated. I think that perhaps I
thought wed come much further in this area than we actually have.
Another big take away for me is the new knowledge of several propaganda
techniques. I did not think of advertisements as propaganda, believing that propaganda
was delegated to the political whelm, but commercials are perfect examples. They do
disseminate misleading information intentionally. We have to be cognizant of these
techniques, so that we dont unintentionally fall for them.
I could use this in a classroom by looking first at a commercial from today. After
reviewing several propaganda techniques, we could try to identify them in the ad, and
then talk about the overall message. After that we can go through the same process with
an ad from the 1940s and talk about the depiction of minorities and women in society at
that time, the propaganda techniques used, and the potential impact ads like that can have
on society. This could start the unit on reformation.

Checklist for assignment:

Described the rhetoric of the commercial in detail (10 points)
Described the overall message of the commercial in detail (10 points)
Described the production of the message in detail (10 points)
Describe the distribution of the message in detail (10 points)
Described the persuasive techniques used in the commercial in detail (10 points)
Included a suggestion on how to use these types of activities in the classroom (10 points)
Included a reflection about this activity (10 points)

Aural Techniques. (n.d.). Retrieved June 27, 2017, from https://quizlet.com/3537785/aural-

techniques-flash-cards/

D. (2014, June 19). The Art of Rhetoric: Persuasive Techniques in Advertising. Retrieved June 27,
2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeCz5fy02JE

Hagen, R., & Golombisky, K. (2017). White space is not your enemy: a beginners guide to
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(n.d.). Retrieved June 27, 2017, from https://www.ispot.tv/ad/wte3/ford-summer-sales-event-its-on-

song-by-owl-city#

Propaganda techniques. (2017, June 27). Retrieved June 27, 2017, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_techniques