Analyzing a Visual Argument
Advertising
and
Commercialism
Analyzing a Visual Argument
Are you a BELIEVER or a DOUBTER?
Do you tend to believe and trust what people say or are you a
skeptic who doubts and questions everything?
Try to be BOTH as you view these video clips.
• Watch each of the following video clips about Commercialism,
and respond to each one in your Writer’s Notebook with the
following statements:
• I BELIEVE that . . .
• I DOUBT that . . .
Commercialism
Personal Space and Freedom
• Marketers compile detailed electronic portraits of shoppers. Companies sell
mailing lists for everything from foreign car ownership to sexual preference.
These computer databases present a staggering potential for abuse.
• Commercialism has spread into almost every aspect of life. Being unable to
escape, it is annoying to many.
• Ads take a lot of our time. The average person spends almost an hour a day
reading, watching, or listening to ads through TV, radio, theaters, videotapes,
newspapers, magazines, mail, or telephone. By the time the average American
is seventy-five years old, advertising will have taken four years of his or her life.
The Merchants of Cool
Frontline Program
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdzxc8Fpn3o
Commercialism
Personal Fulfillment
• Advertising implies that there's an easy solution to everything, from being
healthy to having friends.
• Many ads imply, even if they don't say outright, that happiness is something
we can buy. When we act as though this is true, our personal horizons and
ability to find fulfillment in life are limited.
• Advertising fosters dissatisfaction, envy, and insecurity. It can make us feel
unattractive, uncool, and unhappy with what we do or don't have.
• Our commercialized society places a strong emphasis on appearance,
encouraging us to care about our own and others' appearances rather than
about character, talent, and personality.
• Advertising often causes people, especially young girls, to have a negative
body image.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnJQJFlyDGY
Commercialism
Cultural and Artistic Impact
• Paid product placements influence the content of music, movies, TV shows, and
books. This compromises artistic integrity.
• Commercialism distorts our culture by turning every event into a reason to
consume.
• Anthropologists say that holidays reflect a culture's values. In America, every
holiday is a sales event.
The Merchants of Cool
Frontline Program
MTV: The Power of Marketing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQBwaz_zzHA (start at 6:00)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j2tASIAfF8
Commercialism
Social and Economic Impact
• Advertising projects false images and perpetuates stereotypes.
• Constant exposure to ads may encourage materialism and selfishness. This may make
people less inclined to help others.
• Commercialism does not just promote specific products. It promotes consumption as
a way of life.
• Our commercialized culture encourages people to spend money that they don't really
have. The number of Americans with financial problems has increased steadily in
recent years.
• Advertising costs us money. Businesses pass many of their advertising costs on to us.
Super Size Me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6wJdsYM7qA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2LBwyhtuTo&feature=related
Commercialism
Health Impact
•Commercial foods and the ads for them tend to encourage unhealthy eating
habits.
Super Size Me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N5i-0t8m94&feature=fvwrel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wmac-INoXg
Commercialism
Environmental Impact
•Commercialism contributes to environmental problems by encouraging
wasteful use of natural resources.
•Over-packaging, disposable goods, and buying things we don't really need
all contribute to unnecessary use of limited resources.
•Billboards cause visual pollution.
Urban Sign Pollution
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTEK9yr8zR4
Commercialism:
Self-Mocking Ads
Just for Fun!
Advertisers mock their own advertising strategies in a humorous way,
but the purpose is the same: to sell their product or message!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBjBFSBLdp0&feature=related
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/12/rick-perrys-desperate-measures.php
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPIzLPx6T-U
Read the essay together:
“Do You Want Lies With That?”
From Don’t Eat this Book
By Morgan Spurlock.
•The book was written in 2005 after his documentary
Super Size Me had become well-known.
•Think about what might have motivated him to write the book
and who his audience was.
•In your WNB, after each section that I read, write the
following:
Summary statement
I believe that . . .
I doubt that . . .
The Rhetorical
Triangle
Context/Occasion:
Americans have become more
unhealthy as advertising has
encouraged more consumption.
Spurlock wrote the book after
the movie Super Size Me to build
his argument more.
Title of Essay: “Do You Want Lies with That” by Morgan Spurlock
Subject/Text: Overconsumption is a problem in
America, and the article focuses particularly on
the auto, food, and drug industries.
Logos: (FACTS) 5 million people died from smoking
in 2000; in 1971, cigarette ads were banned from TV;
in 2003, auto industry spent $18.2 billion on
advertising; in 2003 Americans spent $227 billion on
medications; many products are made to look like
food to sell them (rings, cigarettes, toys)
Purpose:
Author/Speaker: Morgan
Spurlock—the director of
documentaries like Super Size Me;
liberal critic of society; uses humor,
sarcasm, and entertainment to
inform the public about problems.
To convince the audience that
Americans are being manipulated by
advertisers to over-consume
Claim:
Americans are over-consuming, and the
problem starts with the food industry and
with the deceptive practices of advertising.
Ethos: He does not refer to his
own reputation, but he does use
the reference to the Surgeon
General to build his credibility
about the dangers of smoking.
Fallacies:
Slippery slope: “Americans are
eating themselves to death”
Hasty Generalization: “Everyone
smoked.”
False Analogy: “This is the power
of advertising at work, of billions
of hooks that’ve been cast into
our heads . . .”
(Compares us to fish)
Audience:
People who are over-consuming in
society and are unaware of the
deceptive practices of advertisers
Pathos: “But your desires. . .
Tone:
that’s all manipulated by corporate
advertising and marketing . . .”
(Appeals to your emotion of fear
that you are being manipulated)
Write a paragraph analyzing the article “Do You Want Lies
with That?” by Morgan Spurlock.
Use all of your analysis from your rhetorical triangle to help you
with the paragraph.
Be sure to include the following:
•Introductory sentence that identifies the title, author, and the claim of the
essay
•Explain the components of the rhetorical triangle. Be sure to address the
three components (author, audience, and subject) and the three appeals
(logos, pathos, and ethos).
•Analyze and explain any fallacies that you find.
•Concluding sentence that explains whether you think this essay makes a
just or unjust claim.
Student Sample Paragraph
In the essay “Do You Want Lies with That?” from his book Do Not Eat This
Book, Morgan Spurlock persuades the audience to wake up and admit the problems
that over-consumption causes in society. Spurlock uses logos to show us the power of
big tobacco companies. For example, he states that tobacco companies agreed to
settlements of $246 billion. He also focuses on how influential advertisers are and how
much money they spend to persuade us to buy products. “In 2003, the auto industry
spent $18.2 billion telling us we needed a new car, more cars, bigger cars.” Spurlock
also uses pathos by appealing to our basic human rights and desires, “We are
responsible for our own life, our rights, and our desires, but we are being influenced
by big name corporations.” This makes the audience feel manipulated to persuade
them to do something about it. Spurlock builds his ethos by referring to the Surgeon
General’s warning about smoking, which supports his own statement about the
dangers of smoking. Although Spurlock is guilty of the fallacies of slippery slope and
hasty generalizations, and his comparison of consumers to fish is a faulty analogy, his
claim is still powerful due to his strong use of logos. His facts about the influence of
advertising and the dangers of overconsumption in our society are very convincing.