Election Essay

As we have discussed in lecture following the three presidential debates, both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have become caricatures in this election.  It almost seems as if they are no longer human beings, but instead characters that are frequently plastered all over the news.   Television shows such as Saturday Night Live have been taking advantage of this current political state.  Two key issues that have resonated with me are immigration and women’s health.  Clinton’s stance on these two issues has been crucial for me in deciding which candidate will receive my vote in this upcoming election.

            My father’s side of my family emigrated from Italy in the 1970s in an effort to create a better life for themselves, essentially chasing the American Dream.  Although it was a difficult and lengthy process, they succeeded in their goal of citizenship.  In the third debate, Clinton quoted Trump when he said “all undocumented immigrants will be subject to deportation,” and while I agree that some immigrants could be a threat to the safety of our country, they should not all be painted as criminals.  Clinton stated that her plan includes border security and deporting only the “violent persons.”  Although I do believe that immigration should be more regulated, I agree that this country thrives off of different cultures of others, and I do not agree with Trump’s notorious plan to build a wall around our borders.  Even though Clinton’s plan for immigration reform laws, I appreciate that her stance still encourages what America was founded on. 

In the case of women’s health and more specifically abortions, I could not even entertain Trump’s argument in the third debate.  I am not a “one-issue voter” however this issue was at the forefront of my decision in deciding which candidate to vote for.  I grew up in a rather conservative, Christian home, however, with this issue, I am primarily and solely influenced by science.  I completely disagree with Trump’s beliefs about abortions and women’s health.  His “argument” in the third debate was blatantly using scare tactics against voters that had no supporting factual evidence or knowledge.  Furthermore, after the final debate, doctors have stated that a “9^th month abortion” does not exist.  As he has previously mentioned in interviews, women who get abortions and doctors who perform them, should be administered some form of punishment.  This is utterly disturbing to me since it should be no one’s choice but the woman’s in that situation.  I do not understand how this private and personal decision should be influenced by the government to this extent.  When it was Trump’s turn to answer the question about abortion, he continued his usual ramblings, only this time using fear to incite a response.  Clinton’s response on the other hand, was passionate, direct, and powerful.  She displayed knowledge and empathy towards this issue, which was in line with my views.

What was most disconcerting and frustrating about the debates was the sheer lack of substance in the first two debates.  Both included a substantial amount of name calling and squabbling over irrelevant details.  However, all three of the debates showcased each candidate’s level of preparation.  Clinton performed well, as any politician would.  She came prepared with facts and data to support her arguments and was able to formulate her responses in a coherent manner.  As Trump flaunts himself as a businessman, I would have thought he would be more skilled in persuasion and arguing with a purpose.  Instead, his arguments frequently included ad hominem attacks littered throughout the first, second, and third presidential debates.  I admired Clinton’s professionalism and tact while she was interrupted by Trump throughout all of the debates.  After watching the debates, I agree with Clinton’s stances on these important issues and believe that ultimately, she is the best option for the next president of the United States. 

Sources

Three Presidential Debates

The Pornography of Everyday Life

Chapter 39, The Pornography of Everyday Life begins with a comparison between the way men and women are often posed in advertisements.  Jane Caputi offers the reader an example to make her case: a photograph taken by American soldiers that shows the abuse of Iraqi male prisoners.  The prisoners were posed in various “sexual displays,” which lead to many viewers’ shock over the behavior in the photos.  Caputi then points out that while men are presented in this way in a humiliating fashion, women are often posed this way, sometimes worse, and receive little to no backlash.  Instead, these women are perceived as “sexy.”  She goes on to write about this “habit of thinking” that sexualizes and degrades both genders (374). 

In her first section, Caputi discusses gender pornography, such as instances where the man is presented as strong, intelligent, and powerful.  The woman in these cases is often posed as vulnerable, younger, and weaker.  This comparison is only enhanced with clothing choices- even when both people in the situation are nude, the man still appears to be dominant.  She suggests these illustrated hierarchies begin with the imbalance of power and inequities between people in everyday life.  Moving forward with these ideas of power and hierarchies, she then introduces the idea of violence porn.  This type of pornography focuses on the domination aspect in sex.  She writes that “to prove manhood, men, one way or another, have to assert domination” (376).  She ends this section with a particularly powerful statement: when sex becomes violent, and “the penis is represented as a weapon, rape becomes its purpose” (377).

Rape porn is habitually portrayed in ads and leads to many of the double standards present in society today.  This goes back to her argument that shows the differences between how men and women are portrayed.  Both sexes could be posing nude, but it usually the women who get the brunt of the objectification.  Objectification is the act of treating a person as a literal object.  Sexual objectification sexualizes this possession and may convince women to believe they need a number of products and services to live up to the impossibly high standards set by society.  Caputi ends this piece by describing the “Goddess,” a sexual divinity that was suppressed by patriarchal religions, and states that the Goddess should come back not as a pornographic symbol, but a natural “life force” (382).

Intelligence vs. Icon

Reading the article about Marilyn Monroe really surprised me.  I was unaware of her passion for learning and intellect before I read it.  She was curious about learning, and yearned to be more educated.  Actually, I believe this aspect of personality has faded from many people’s personalities today.  Regardless of whether or not she was intelligent, she was always striving to “better herself.”  Her quote about her persona that the article used was especially powerful to me.  She said, “I’ve let people fool themselves. They didn’t bother to find out who and what I was.”  Instead of people discovering the woman behind the façade, they judged her on the role she was playing as a dumb blonde.  To judge people purely on their appearances and fronts they put up is an aspect of society that we have never really grown out of.  My best guess as to why she “hid” her intelligence is because it was what the society wanted at that time.  An overly-sexualized dumb blonde was able to attract more people’s attention than an intelligent woman.  Unfortunately, I think this fact still lingers in society today.

            A modern day celebrity that may be hiding part of her intellect is Kesha.  This may be common knowledge at this point, but I think she is essentially holding back on her intelligence in order to further her career as a pop singer.  Although I do not particularly like the music she produces, I can respect how smart she is.  Sources say she earned an almost-perfect score on the SAT, and was accepted at Barnard College.  However, instead of completing her time at Barnard through graduation, she chose to drop out and pursue her music career instead.  Her songs can often be described as having “dumb” lyrics with no substance, but many people would probably also say that her songs are catchy.  She may be producing this kind of music though because unfortunately, it is what sells.  The songs that people will play at parties and on the radio are always the catchy, upbeat ones, not the ones with the most meaningful lyrics.  In order to sell more of this music, she would have to physically depict the persona she is selling in her music.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kesha

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/10/celebrities-sat-scores_n_4078848.html

The Language of Persuasion

BASIC

1)      Celebrities- Aveeno is famous for using celebrities as spokespeople to sell their products.  This ad is trying to sell “healthier looking skin” by picturing Jennifer Aniston next to the product.  Using a celebrity in an advertisement often suggests to the consumer that by using the product, they too will look like the celebrity, as if the celebrity is saying, “I use this too, if you use it, you will be just like me.”  The power of the celebrity can be measured by how famous they are.  The more famous they are, the more likely they are to make an impact on the consumer.

2)      Bandwagon- Marketing this mascara as “America’s favorite mascara” helps to show the ubiquity of the product.  Maybelline also writes that one is sold every 1.7 seconds.  Both of these statements together can influence if a customer purchases the product.  This group of ads often begs the question from the consumer, “a majority of American people use this, don’t you want to be like them?”  This group of ads plays on a person’s desire to feel included in a majority.

3)      Fear- This ad utilizes fear as an effective advertising tactic.  By stating that “cutting your sun exposure is easier than cutting out a skin cancer” this ad does two things.  First, the mention of cancer alone is usually enough to induce a fear response in people.  And second, by addressing the person viewing this ad directly, it has a greater impact.  It suggests that this hypothetical person with a melanoma could be you.  By selling a sunscreen, this ad’s goal is to provide some kind of relief for the consumer.

4)      Warm and Fuzzy- This ad shows a duckling next to Dawn dish soap- this soap claims to be “tough on oil, but gentle on hands.”  During this campaign, Dawn’s commercials often involved cleaning animals that had been caught in oil spills with dishwashing soap to attest to this slogan.  Other ads often show puppies or other animals to elicit a “warm and fuzzy” response in a person.  If that person felt a sense of happiness from the cute animals, then the ad and product might remain in that person’s mind longer, influencing them to buy the product.

INTERMEDIATE 

 

1)      Flattery- Using the tagline “Because you’re worth it” is an example of flattery in advertisements.  The advertisers want to make the consumers think that they deserve the best of the best, while showing that their product IS the best of the best.  By simultaneously flattering the customer and presenting him or her with a product, it greatly impacts the chances of them actually purchasing the item.  If the consumer appreciates the flattery, they might be more likely to believe it.

2)      Nostalgia- By using retro fonts and including the word “throwback” on the label, Pepsi is trying to appeal to an older generation- not just kids who like soda.  The ad also tells the consumer that Pepsi is made with real sugar.  Displaying this message in the retro font is more powerful than a plain font because of the way it influences the emotions of the viewer.  It may cause a person to reminisce back to their childhood.  The goal is to have this feeling of nostalgia will stick with people so that the next time they are grocery shopping, they remember this advertisement.

3)      Scientific Evidence- Although this ad does not portray any graphs or data to be considered a scientific evidence-type advertisement, it does use the word dermatologist.  By including this word, the advertiser is saying speaking to the reliability of this product. This can prove to the consumer that since a dermatologist is a doctor, and doctors are trustworthy, they are able to trust that this product works and yields results.

4)      New- This advertisement for Garnier shampoo demonstrates the concept of novelty.  It portrays a woman pulling on her unrealistically long hair.  This is literally the personification of Garnier’s slogan for this new product: “Longer, stronger, better.”  This is trying to show the consumer that this new formula of shampoo is better than the previous products.  Her hair is long and apparently strong, so it must be better.

ADVANCED

1)      Cause vs. Correlation- This ad shows a crying baby with text that says “kids of teen moms are twice as likely not to graduate.”  What this ad doesn’t show is the research behind this claim.  Granted this ad will grab your attention, but then the ad directs you to a text service or website for more information.  By addressing the viewer directly, this ad has a much stronger impact in the minds of the viewers; however, I am not sure that enough people will follow up with this website for the ad to be powerful.

2)      Analogy- This ad is trying to appeal to consumers who wish to buy a more natural product.  It shows a Heinz ketchup bottle as if it was sliced up like a tomato, along with the tagline “No one grows Ketchup like Heinz.”  Obviously you can’t grow ketchup, implying the main ingredient is tomatoes, promoting a more holistic, natural product.

3)      Timing- This ad was released by Swiss Airlines around Christmastime to promote travel.  Many people travel around the holidays, so the timing of this ad is paramount to its effectiveness.  However, there are a few problems with this ad.  First, it commercializes Christmas, and second, it only appeals to those who celebrate Christmas.  This advertising technique is used quite often, usually around holidays to entice the consumer to buy more than what he or she actually needs.

4)      Scapegoat- This ad is against Pat Toomey saying that he would rather have goods manufactured in China, not in the US.  Looking overseas to manufacture goods would in turn decrease the amount of jobs created in the US.  These kinds of advertisements are often used in political situations to blame one individual for the problems of many.  This can usually tie in with the “Simple Solution” technique where the solution to these problems is easy: don’t vote for this person, and the problems will be solved.

BAD ADS

      This ad shows a white male dressed in workout attire, with the words “cheat on your girlfriend, not on your workout” printed on top.  In the bottom right corner, the viewer can see that this is an ad from Reebok, a fitness company.  Their “cheat on your girlfriend, not your workout” campaign was supposedly only released in Germany.  Because of social media and the internet, this ad quickly made its way to other countries and received an enormous amount of backlash.  What this ad is portraying is disrespect for any woman in a heterosexual relationship.  It also shows disrespect for the relationship itself, assuming fitness is more important than a relationship with another person.  While fitness is very important, the disregard for women portrayed in this ad is appalling.  What surprises me, is that this ad actually got as far as it did.  It was posted around multiple stores in Germany before someone noticed its offensive message.

This ad was actually part of a series of advertisements, each one more sexist than the other.  Each picture is a photo of some high-end cookware sold by Madison Avenue Cookware.  On top of these photos, the text reads “Enjoy your time out of the bedroom,” “A woman’s best friend,” or “The only thing that cooks better than a woman.”  This is an American company, but the campaign was launched in Australia a few years back.  In an interview, the CEO of this company, Roger Hudson, said that “research has told us that women actually do love cooking ad they do actually love keeping their man happy.  It’s in their DNA.”  Instead of a company releasing an ad that they didn’t realize was sexist or offensive, this company CEO outright agrees with the sexist messages of their advertisements.