How Persuasion on Advertising Influences Our Attitudes and Behaviors

Critique three mediated messages.

Comm 1100 sec all sections - Take Home Assignment / Prof. Ruh Fal9Scholarship: Be sure to connect your discussion as much as possible to course concepts by bringing Zarefky into your work. Here is a short example:

l. This message was from Lexus and it was for the company's annual "December to Remember Sales Event." It is a television ad. I have seen it on a lot but for this assignment the specific ad Was on ESPN and ran during a commercial break on "SportsCenter." The ad shows snow falling on Christmas morning and a man who awakes to find a band new Lexus in his driveway. The voice narration says blah, blah, balh....the ad says this is the best time of the year to get into the Lexus of my dreams. The narration, supported by on-screen graphics, says attractive leases start at just $399 per month. The cars on screen all have big Christmas ribbons on them and the people look really happy.
This ad seemed to be about inducing specific action, which Zarefsky (2017) says is the persuasive purpose wherein a speaker "wants audience members to do something as a result of a speech" (p. 293). The speaker here, in effect, fits Zarefsk/s definition of wan advertiser trying to sell a product" (p. 293). It seems clear that Lexus wants viewers not merely to like their cars but to go out and lease one now.
Though this ad contains a lot of information (pricing, lease terms, warranty, much of it in fine print displayed on the screen) all pretty wall laid out, it is largely one built around persuasion via pathos, which Zarefsky defines as “appeals to appropriate emotions" (p. 308). The Christmas snow, the holiday-themed music, the scenes of a happy family smiling as dad is surprised by his new car are all intended to create a warm and positive emotional connection. Yet I notice that the company only shows the lease terms of the cars featured, not the actual sticker prices. This might be seen as an attempt to subtly use pathos toward addressing a question of fact: that a Lexus is affordable. Since Lexus as a reputation for building good cars, blah, blah, blah...
S Attach an APA citation page for our book as the last page of your submission. It looks like this (my gift К to you):
Reference
' Zarefsky, D. (2017). Public speaking: strategies for success (8th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education.
(Please be sure that your citation here is in the same font you use for your submission. That seems the least I can ask for having given you the citation.)
Due: The day of our final meeting.

Comm 1100 sec all sections-Take Home Assignment / Prof. Ruh Fal9Introduction: Persuasion is all around us. It is omnipresent in our lives in an age when our very identities are nearly defined by our media usage, especially since much of the media we use is supported by advertising. Between the content we receive that is the “product" of a specific medium (the shows we watch on a specific network, or the music we hear on a given radio station of streaming service, the stories and articles we read in magazines of websites) and the advertising/commercial content, it seems that we are on the receiving end of messages almost 24/7.

Though a good deal of the messages we see, hear and read are informative (the weather report or a sports score update), a good chunk is persuasive in some manner; in fitting with the definition offered by Zarefsky (2017), these messages are intended to influence our attitudes and behaviors (p. 9). Sometimes we willingly engage with these messages; other times they just invade our consciousness (such as when you encounter a billboard on your drive to campus). Yet how often have we ever stopped to ask ourselves about these messages, the messengers who created them, and the media that delivers them? What do they want from us?
The Goal: My goal fit creating this assignment is to get you not only thinking about all the ways persuasion is active and alive in your life, but also to apply some of what you now know about public speaking — specifically reasoning, the use of evidence to support claims, persuasion and, yes, critical listening—to analyze a few of the messages that come your way. This might help you see how some of what you have learned is applied effectively (or not) in the “real" world while also helping you become a more astute and discerning consumer in the marketplace of ideas.
The Assignment: Between now and the day of our final, you are to assess and critique three mediated messages - the sort of things you get from TV, radio/streaming/audio, the Internet (including social media), k print media (magazines, newspapers, books), movies, and even in the realm of digital gaming. You do not I have to focusjust on advertising. You may encounter an opinion piece on someone's blog or in a I newspaper or somewhere else that is worth looking into. But advertising and its non-profit relative, the I public service announcement (PSA), are often the most prevalent types of persuasive messages we ■ encounter and also, especially because of their brevity, a bit more easily assessed and critiqued than ah I opinion piece or political treatise. (Each should come from different medium and type - in other ;/ words, do not use three Youtube clips or three automobile ads.)
I Structure/format: Just write a few short paragraphs about each of the three messages you assess. Each ■ response gets a few paragraphs. So think of 6-8 paragraphs total.
I I'll be asking you to discuss: Who is the messenger? (In other words, who paid for or sponsored the message? McDonalds, Coke, The Southern California Ford Dealers, the Pomona Valley Car Wash?) What was the medium, and specifically which, if you can say? (In other words, it was radio on KOLA 99.9 or on KROQ, or it was a banner ad on the Huffington Post, or it was a TV commercial on ESPN.) What was the message about? What did it want from you? (Specifically focus on the concepts discussed in chapter 14: strengthening commitment, weakening commitment, conversion, inducing a specific action.) You'll also want to consider if they are addressing questions of fact, value or policy. And it would be good to discuss the manner in which the message employed ethos, logos and pathos. In other words, how did the message portray some sense of credibility? Was it well organized? And how did it use emotion and/or attempt to touch or inspire some emotional response in you?
Do not choose three messages all of the same kind. In other words, don't pick three Youtube ads. Choose from a variety of different media, messengers and types.