Abortion

Recently I came across some very interesting rhetoric on Facebook.  Abortion being the controversial topic it is I was surprised to see this come across my news feed:

As many of us know, Planned Parenthood is known for providing abortions to women across America. With abortion being such an opinionated topic people were guaranteed to respond to such a powerful image. The response I encountered was a female in my age group who was stating the claim that pulling funds on organizations like Planned Parenthood was especially detrimental. Her argument to this was that 97% of the services Planned Parenthood provides do not include abortions and that pulling funding means pulling funding for sexual education, breast exams, and other healthcare services not just abortions. But that is not the problem. The problem in her rhetoric is the fact that she did this by completely attacking the person who posted the picture. She claims “things like this boils my blood” and “I hate people who cannot see what good this company does”. This is what I think is wrong with the current and following generations. Instead of letting the facts make her argument she decided to turn to angry words. Being someone who is against abortion, even though I did  not comment on the picture I felt personally attacked and wanted to yell at her, call her stupid and prove her wrong.  When individuals act like this in these situations it causes people to shut down or fight to be the one who is right. This makes it harder and harder for generations to have meaningful discussions that can lead to legitimate conclusions which will further their thinking. Is this what our world is becoming? Is there no way to make a sophisticated argument without attacking the one that you talking to? 

*I believe that Susan G Komen has chosen to return to funding Planned Parenthood*

Can you hear me now?

Cell phone companies today have resulted in some very ruthless tactics in their advertising. Directly attacking another company to show how superior they are. As a consumer, instead of agreeing with the commercial that supports the most facts, I have however found myself pledging my loyalty any time my company is attacked. So today I want to look at how successful these tactics are.

                The two biggest companies right now are AT&T and Verizon. From my understanding of the situation Verizon began to attack AT&T stating that “there’s a map” for why their 3G service is so much better than AT&T's service. Verizon claims that they have more 3G coverage which is shown by comparing coverage maps of the two company’s 3G coverage:

 This was a really sneaky commercial on Verizon’s part because AT&T works on more than just 3G and Verizon knew that they could show just the 3G and make it seem as though AT&T had no coverage whatsoever. To me, their attempt at logos was pretty sad. Yes they provided facts for the consumer to take in but it felt like a lie which made me dislike the company even more and question their liability. AT&T on the other hand utilized ethos with their “rebuttal” commercial and kind of said we’re going to take the high road. Instead of attacking Verizon, AT&T used satellite coverage to show all of the areas that they cover playing with logos:

 Then they also released another commercial going to all of the cities and playing with the word coverage and covering all of the places they provide service with an orange blanket:

 This was classy and a lot more receptive than the Verizon commercials.

While these two companies are having their little fight in the corner T-Mobile steps in and basically states the claim that both of these two companies suck and you should just join my company. You can see this here:

I thought that this was a very smart move for T-Mobile. It came at a time where everyone was tired of the bickering between AT&T and Verizon so there was the perfect exigence. This commercial was still mean and attacking the other two companies but T-Mobile used and playful girl wearing pink to downplay the gravity of the commercial. You kind of feel like this woman is just stating the obvious not making any crazy claims so why not believe her, right?

The fight between companies is pretty silly to me. Yes, it is nice to be able to check my email or facebook while traveling but all I really care about is the ability to make a call which I always can. I say let them keep fighting, it’s the easiest way to get the cheapest price for the best phones.

Leisure Reading

Many of us today love curling up to a good book. But what makes it good? Is it the most talked about publication with your group of friends? Is it on Oprah's booklist? Or was it just a bright pretty color on the cover? Before this class, I never really stopped to think about why I chose I book to read, it just simply seemed good to me. But now that I think about it, publishing companies have been slowly becoming advertising gurus.
First, the infamous on the back or inside of the publication. It has to be intreguing enough to get your attention but leave you wanting more. Some can do this very very well but others not so much. Without this however, the reader is left confused and annoyed and probably will not read that book.
Then, the quotes reputable strangers. This tactic is basically lets show you that a bunch of people you do not know love this book and use adjictives that can apply to anything such as "beautifully written", "delightful", or"excellent", so that you love it too. To me, these are extremely rediculous. These are people that you never met before and are not garunteed to love the same things that I do. Therefore, why would I choose a book based on their comments?
And the last thing I will touch on today is the color chosen for the cover of the book. Darker colors are used to portray a more serious, adult-like situation, whereas, colorful book covers attract children and teenagers. While this seemed a bit rediculous to me at first it makes perfect sense. If you are attracted to a bright pink book then I highly doubt that you will be looking for a tragedy where someone dies in the end. It is a great strategy and works pretty well along with the other two.

This I Believe

Hey guys. You can listen to my This I Believe essay here. Thank you.

Legen- wait for it- dary

Sitcoms. We all watch them we all love them and they are always there to give us a laugh. But why are sitcoms so great? Isn’t reality TV taking over the market which has existed for many many years? I personally doubt that will ever happen. Sitcoms are great because of their rhetorical standing. There is an audience for them because people like to get away from their humdrum life and be entertained. Sitcoms fulfill this need and also do it in a very inexpensive way, which in turn creates another audience. An audience of people who would like the additive of cheap entertainment to their lives. If we focus more on specific sitcoms, we can see that there are different subgroups of this general audience. People want to laugh at nerdy jokes, and the Big Bang Theory is born. A different audience wants to laugh at the stupid things that happen at work, so The Office is created. Any successful sitcom has been created at a time where the exigence is perfect.

Furthermore, sitcoms either poke fun or support the common places we have in our society. In most family sitcoms there is the episode where x child actor/actress steals lies or cheats. This is something that our society finds wrong so x child gets punished, or reprimanded in some way. Or the sitcom includes the mischievous male child who gets into all sorts of crazy things. We find these situations amusing because they are common things that happen in society and we can each relate.

Then there are the sitcoms that are so general that anyone could love it at any point in life. Think about it; Golden Girls, Friends, and How I Met Your Mother are all just a group of friends in different adventures. You don’t have to be an elderly white woman to understand the jokes in Golden Girls, nor do you have you be a twenty-something year old living in New York to find the jokes in How I Met Your Mother funny. These are each pretty much the same concept the only difference is they were created at the right time for them to be successful.

Essentially, I do not see a world without sitcoms. As we continue to grow as a society, things change and we have more situations to poke fun at. No one would walk away from a good laugh and as long as that continues to be provided there will always be an audience for sitcoms.