A/V Outline for Workshop

This is Morgan and my outline for our A/V project. We are still ironing out the kinks, so bear with us as we work through this :)

1) "Music. It makes us smile; it excites and makes us dance; it brings us to tears. A simple piece can bring back a memory in fall relief; we actually feel we are there, and it can change our mood with in minutes--or instantaneously."
        <Pathos.>

2) "Of the estimated 60 billion broadcast advertising hours encountered by North Americans each year approximately 3 quarters employ music in some manner." -According to www.marsbands.com

3) Swiffer commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFbeP6YqHzg

4)Why do you think Swiffer chose this song?

5) 97 million other songs to choose from.

6)An infinite amount of song options. Deliberate rhetorical decision.

7) "Humor distracts an audience during persuasive communication." -www.arcwebsite.org
Humor takes away from the act of "selling" to the audience, but instead replaces it with a good feeling that the buyer associates positively with the product.

8) Play sample of Tu-Pac's "Changes." What if Swiffer used this song instead? The rhetorical purpose changes, as well as the targeted audience.
         
9) Reese's commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLKmr-tS9yU

10) What else could have been chosen and how would it appeal differently?
Big Papa's "Big Papa."
This would be a rhetorical choice that is still humorous, but appeals to a different demographic/audience.

11) These marketers failed miserably in communicating effectively to the audience.
  Education Connection commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYS5NtRXlZQ

Though these marketers aren't attempting to use humor as a form of persuasion, they are trying to use music though "cool" as a means of persuasion...and failed miserably.

12) Using music humorously in advertising through pathos is as an effective means of rhetoric in the digital age.

Concluding Slide:
"Music. It makes us smile; it excites and makes us dance; it brings us to tears. A simple piece can bring back a memory in fall relief; we actually feel we are there, and it can change our mood with in minutes--or instantaneously."

Sex, Drugs, Rock and Intelligence

How do we make “cool” what our culture says is not “cool?” Translation: Let’s make “cool” something that is useful: logic, reason, dialogue, and etcetera.

I was listening in on another group’s conversation today, and what I heard was quite interesting. Brook was saying that having three Harvard degrees isn’t valuable in the world of cool like having the latest iPhone, or gmail account versus a Hotmail account (because gmail is the new “it” email, I guess), or by having a sweet pic on your blog versus an empty, bland blog. Apparently, these are things that warrant the attention of people nowadays.

            I think its safe to say that society via the entertainment world dictates “cool.” What we the consumers perceive as cool is what is marketed to us through the entertainment world (baaaah*). It’s all about the talent (movies, music, dance, television, etc.), but not enough about the brains. I know that the last time I came across any sort of applaud towards intelligence was when I was reading a Forbes article on the top Billionaires of the 2010’s. I find it interesting that it takes an accomplishment so grand to become worthy of our attention.

            The other night, I was watching a comedy special on Netflix, and the headliner was a man from South Africa. He joked about how obsessed with sports Americans are. He said that Americans know all the ins and outs of their favorite team in great every detail, but when asked about the economy, they didn’t know anything at all. Though humorous, it was very true.

            It’s a shame that we don’t value intelligence here in America (I say “here in America” because I have no idea what other countries value. I can imagine that intelligence, at least in Asia, is highly valued. Just look at their rigorous school systems!). We find our cool within entertainment. Actors are paid millions to act in a feature film; Artists make millions off of touring and merchandise.

           

            The cigarettes on the pages of the article captivated me. Our group discussed the purpose of the cigarettes (as they are in no way cool), and what we came up with is the exact point that Dr. Pepper (did anyone else type his name just to type it?) was getting at: that the photograph of the cigarette wasn’t meant to seem like it is important, although it was eye catching enough to raise questions, therefore becoming important without the reader becoming fully aware of what just happened. This led me think about subliminal messaging and how sex is literally everywhere. Selling sex is timeless. What is going to catch your attention? Sex will…every time. So how do we plan on making intelligence cool without coating it in sex, drugs and rock and roll (or is that exactly what we do?), AND while sneaking it by the consumer? We must be stealthy, like the cigarettes in the article or the sex on the toilet paper commercial that isn’t really there, but totally is. We can’t make it seem like this is our plan because kids (I say “kids” liberally) catch on. If you put healthy cereal into a crazy-colored, sugary-appearing box, kids might buy into it for a time or two, and then, eventually, they will have caught on. Our society is becoming the idiot consumer more and more by the 30-second television commercial. Intelligence is not easy, nor is it fun, so we don’t want it, simply put. If we find a way to fix that mindset, then we might have our answer to selling intelligence as “cool”. I’ll step off my soapbox now.

Baaaah.*

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2r-464KzH_k

^This is the link to that comic.