Visual Rhetoric

First things first, I want you to remember when we talked about how EVERYTHING is a text. This includes the more obvious advertisements and news stories to the less expected music videos and architecture.

For your next blog post each of you will find an image online, save it, and post it in your blog and analyze it. You should identify the purpose (what the image is trying to tell you), the audience (who are they targeting?), and the kinds of rhetoric they are using to convey their message (pathos, ethos, logos). You should also explain how it is effective, how it fails, what it shows us about our society, etc. Feel free to critique it and/or what is says about our culture.

To the right is a sample of an image and a very brief analysis of the argument. I'm only giving you guidelines for this assignment, make it yours by using your voice, wit, humor, insights, knowledge, everything.

The text in the upper-left corner says: "Super. That's how milk makes you feel. The calcium helps bones grow strong, so even if you're not from Krypton you can have bones of steel. got milk?"

"got milk?" has a been using American heroes in their campaign lately. So, when looking at Superman or Hulk with a fake milk mustache I ask myself, "What does a superhero have to do with milk?" and the answer is simple: NOTHING. Although superheroes may not be logically connected to the importance of a healthy diet, they are connected to the nostalgic American idea about superheroes, superpowers, adventure, and gender constructions.

As far as the target audience of this ad...One might say that the audience is young boys who idolize Superman, but I would expand that group to include anyone who knows who Superman is. No, I'll take that back. Anyone who is at all interested in being powerful, attractive, influential, and ripped (not to mention those people who just like wearing spandex). While the 5 year old boys might actually believe that drinking milk will make them as strong as a superhero, the older and wiser onlookers buy into what this ad promises as well. It promises strength, good looks, popularity, celebrity, adventure, and, of course, heroism.

Yes, this ad uses (unsupported) logos by referring to the calcium content of milk and the fact that calcium is needed for strong bones, but the rhetorical heavy hitter is pathos. This image of Superman conjures images and memories of childhood, of a belief in something supernatural and otherworldly, and the secret desire to have those powers and that kind of impact on the world. Although the argument is not sound, the advertisement is effective, which says a lot about the population of this country and the culture which surrounds us.