Big Box Mart

One of my favorite types of rhetoric is satire. More specifically, I love how it means using clever humor to get a point across to the audience. JibJab, a digital entertainment studio, is known for its witty uses of satire. The studio creates satiric videos criticizing politicians or past events. My personal favorite JibJab video is “Big Box Mart.”

This video is drenched with satire. From the smog-filled Beijing to the house bursting with stuff, JibJab makes use of burlesque, parody and exaggeration.

For each character, the heads of photographed people have been cut off and pasted onto disproportional bodies. All of them are the same height and have stiff movements, making them more comical.

The characters’ stiff gestures move in tempo to the parody of “Oh Susanna!”, a classic 19^th century American song. This folk ballad, recognizable to most Americans, reinforces that the clip’s content is criticizing what’s going on in America.

Rather than using a tone as serious as the topic, the song has an upbeat tempo that contrasts to the troubling phenomena being described in the clip. By doing this, JibJab is using irony. It puts the context of the message in a humorous light but continues to highlight the dismal truth reflected through the parodied lyrics.

Along with the comical-looking people and parodied American classic, JibJab makes use of exaggeration. Beijing in a smog-filled city of factories, America’s countryside is filled with billboards, the main character’s shopping cart is overloaded with stuff, and Big Box Mart has over 90 isles.

The visual exaggerations play off of stereotypes of American consumerism. The man claims he has “lots of needs” and proceeds to place a yard gnome in his bright red cart. He pulls out 7 credit cards while pushing his overloaded cart. His wife is pressed against a window of their house because there’s simply not enough room inside because of all of the things they bought from Big Box Mart.

The exaggeration continues as “American Industries Est. 1776” is shut down as it can’t compete with cheap foreign labor. The man can now no longer afford retirement and now must “scrub toilets until they put [him] in the grave.” Not all of American industries have been shut down and not all those who have lost their jobs will be forced to scrub toilets for the rest of their lives. To say the least, these are major exaggerations. Yet, despite the humor found in the amplifications, JibJab is emphasizing a sad truth—cheap foreign labor is hurting some Americans, leaving them in sad situations. This man’s however, it overly pathetic.

To me, JibJab’s over exaggeration is humorous while still being effective at delivering its message.  I for one would prefer to not like to work for a place like Big Box Mart, thus:

‘Oh Big Box Mart, no don’t you cry for me. I come from Happy Valley where I will get my degree!’

ASPCA Pathos

This week the theme is pathos—or appeals to the audience’s emotions.  According to Aristotle, in order to effectively use pathos, the rhetor must 1.) understand the state of mind of emotional others, 2.) know who can excite emotions in people, and 3.) understand the reasons for becoming emotional. As an audience member, perhaps one of the most effective examples of pathos is the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals’ (ASPCA) commercial promotion featuring Sarah McLachlan and her hit Angel.

Animal cruelty is a rather grim subject, but rather than allowing the unpleasant topic discourage possible endorsers, the ASPCA uses it to their advantage by appealing to the hearts and emotions of good-willed people. By understanding the state of mind of the audience, the ASPCA can take an appropriate to address the audience.

Determining an appropriate approach, the ASPCA also considers who can most effectively evoke the audience’s emotions. Rather than featuring healthy humans in no obvious need of support, the commercial presents rescued animals, each more pitiful than the previous. The wide eyes or, in the case of one cat, eye and feeble legs emphasize the animals’ helplessness and, perhaps more importantly, aims to tug at the hearts of the audience.

Coinciding with the woeful animals is Sarah McLachlan’s song Angel, its tempo slow and tone soft. And while its sound reflects the somber nature of animal cruelty, its lyrics also help to portray the ASPCA’s message.

Starting off the commercial with “in the arms of an angel,” the song corresponds to a dog being held in the arms of an ASPCA member. Having been through a rough and abusive past, the mistreated dog is in need of an angel or someone who is willing to help through the ASPCA.

Assuming they’ve effectively appealed to the audience’s pathos through the featured animals, the audience is perhaps wondering how they, too, can become an angel and help the unfortunate animals. Luckily Sarah McLachlan is there to tell the audience how they can help through the ASPCA. If the animals have caused the audience to become emotional, then perhaps they’ll want to help them, allowing the ASPCA to make use of kairos—the opportune time to call the audience into action and donate to the ASPCA.

This commercial appeals to my emotions. I become moved at the sight of mistreated animals and want to open my heart and home to them. It’s worked in the past too! Thanks to appeals to pathos, I have adopted two cats!

My family and I adopted our cats Ella (top) and Marvin (bottom) thanks to appeals to pathos!

The 2012 Rhetoric Apocalypse

The Super Bowl is famed for not only some of the best football of the year, but also for its memorable commercials. For 30 seconds and $3.5 million, advertisers have the chance to persuade their audience, roughly 110 million viewers¹, to buy the product advertised. Needless to say, much rhetoric is used to accomplish this.

One of the commercials that stuck out to me this Super Bowl was Chevy Silverado’s Apocalypse of 2012 advertisement. From the colors to the context of the commercial, rhetoric was rampant.

From the beginning the viewer can sense that immense destruction has occurred. The ruined city is void of color, except for an occasional yellow from fire that burn among broken bicycles and fallen streetlights. The destruction of the Mayan-predicted 2012 apocalypse has taken its toll.

Suddenly, among boulders that resemble an old freeway, a sign of life! —Or at least the roar of an engine. All at once the music turns from being a somber trumpet (reminiscent of Taps) to an upbeat song reflecting the truck and owner’s survival despite the apocalypse.

As the Chevy Silverado drives through the ruined city, past a burning Big Boy, crashed UFO and decapitated electric giant, one can’t help but be amazed that this truck could endure all of the surrounding destruction. It must be one tough truck!

Finally the owner congregates with others who have other models of the Chevy Silverado. And where is Dave? He “didn’t drive the longest-lasting, most dependable truck on the road” and therefore did not make it.

It’s clear that Chevy is trying to argue that, unlike other more unreliable brands, Chevy’s trucks will go the distance with their owners. Chevy also seems to be emphasizing a bandwagon—Dave didn’t have a Chevy, so Dave missed out of being with his friends.

The music used by Chevy also emphasizes the dependability of the Silverado. By first evocating Taps, a musical piece typically played during flag ceremonies and funerals, and then shifting to Barry Manilow’s Looks Like We Made It which suggests accomplishment, Chevy is insinuating that the Silverado is tougher than any adventure.

All in all, between the music, images and dialogue, this commercial used effective rhetoric in a clever way. Here is to hoping that an apocalypse does not occur, or that if it does, those of us with vehicles other than Chevy’s will survive! 

¹http://www.forbes.com/sites/avidan/2012/02/07/super-bowl-ads-take-the-money-and-run/

Super Bowl XXXVIII: exposed and extremely kairotic

Exigency; an urgent need for change.  When I think back on the events that have led to an audience to call for change, one incident stands out in particular—the infamous Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction of Super Bowl XXXVIII.

Jackson’s risqué halftime performance with former lead singer of N’Sync Justin Timberlake included scantily clad backup dancers in a mash up of Jackson’s songs followed by Timberlake’s “Rock Your Body”. The dance involved Timberlake following Jackson around the stage, pausing occasionally to dance rather suggestively. By the last lyrics, “bet I’ll have you naked by the end of this song,” the two stood center stage and Timberlake proceeded to pull off part of Jackson’s costume. The result? In front of millions watching from the stadium and television Janet Jackson exposed A LOT of cleavage.

Voilà, exigence! Here was an incident calling for change, and the public responded kairoticly. The 2004 halftime show led to widespread debate on perceived indecency in broadcasting. On the same day the Parents Television Group (PTG) issued a statement condemning the halftime show. Meanwhile the Federal Communications Commission received almost 540,000 complaints from Americans¹.

Following the complaints and condemnations, steps toward change began to take place. The Federal Communications Commission levied a record $550,000 fine against CBS, whose network was airing the live performance, and raised an overall FCC fine per indecency from $27,000 to $325,000. In 2005, New York Times columnist Frank Rich argued that censorship on television was becoming more prevalent because of the incident.

Indeed, daytime soap operas began to be wary of suggestive content and some networks even established regulations for live broadcasts requiring time delays of up to 5 minutes. Here was an incident that called for to the audience for change and they responded. Through complaints, both oral and written, this incident became one of rhetorical exigence. What’s more, thanks to kairos, the declining morality of broadcasting was brought to the forefront of the news.

With all of this change, what did the 2005 Super Bowl Halftime Show consist of? Paul McCartney on the stage playing his guitar and fully clad.

¹http://www.usatoday.com/money/2005-01-20-bowl-cover_x.htm

I Believe In Making Toffee

http://www.personal.psu.edu/kcg5105/blogs/thisibelieve.mp3