EXAMPLES
(1) JIF Peanut Butter slogan
"Choosy moms choose JIF"
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
“moms”:
 moms, rather than mother, carries the
connotation of loving, caring
 SEXISM: relies upon a trite gender role of women
as shoppers, caretakers of the family
▪ Only women can shop? Men are too stupid to go
grocery shopping? Men don’t care about their children?
▪ Men work, women do only housework?
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
to “choose”:
 to select, seek, discriminate, buy

“choosy”:
 selective
 conscientious
 loving
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
SUBTEXTS:
 “Moms who care about/love their children will
discriminately buy JIF.”
 Only mothers who truly love their children will
buy JIF.
 Fathers/men don’t love their children—because
they do not shop for groceries.
If you do not buy this brand of peanut butter,
then you do not love your children.
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(2) Shania Twain’s
“She's Not Just a Pretty Face ”
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(Oh na, na, na)
She hosts a T.V. show--she rides the rodeo
She plays the bass in a band
She's an astronaut—
A valet at the parking lot
A farmer working the land
She is a champion-- she gets the gold
She's a ballerina-- the star of the show Chorus:
She's -- not -- just a pretty face
She's -- got -- everything it takes
She has a fashion line –
A journalist for Time
Coaches a football team
She's a geologist-- a romance novelist
She is a mother of three
She is a soldier-- she is a wife
She is a surgeon-- she'll save your life
Chorus:
She's -- not -- just a pretty face
She's -- got -- everything it takes
She's -- mother -- of the human race
She's -- not -- just a pretty face
Oh, oh, yeah
Oh na, na, na, na.....
She is your waitress
-- she is your judge –
She is your teacher
She is every woman in the world
Oh, la, la, la
She flies an airplane –
She drives a subway train
At night she pumps gasoline
She's on the council-- she's on the board
She's a politician-- she praises the Lord
Repeat Second Chorus
No, she's (she's) not (not) --just a pretty face
She's (she's) got (got) -- everything it takes
She's -- not -- just a pretty face
She's got everything it takes
She's not just a pretty face
(Written by Twain/Lange)
Twain, Shania. “She’s Not Just a Pretty Face.”
n.d. 14 Mar. 2009. <http://www.azlyrics.com/
lyrics/shaniatwain/
shesnotjustaprettyface.html>.
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FEMINISM:
 Men are defined by their intellectual, physical,
and sexual traits.
 But Women are only defined by their sexual
attributes.
 Yet a woman is more than her “pretty face”—
more than her physical traits, her appearance,
more than her sexuality.
Women can be defined
beyond their sexuality, their appearances.
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FEMINISM:
 A woman has intelligence, too.
 Attractive women are not necessarily stupid.
 To prove her point, she lists EXAMPLES of roles that
women play that are NOT based upon gender.
MULTICULTURALISM:
 The women shown in the video are diverse
 of various races and classes
 (ages, ethnicity, religion).
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(3) Cartoon
Pardon My Planet
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Pardon My Planet.14 Mar. 2009. 14 Mar. 2009.
<http://www.seattlepi.com/fun/ineedhelp.asp?date=20090314>.
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AUDIENCE:
 children (cartoons)
 mothers reading to children
TARGET:
 women, wives (unhappily married), divorced women
SUBJECTS:
 women, Caucasian women, middle-upper class, nice home
& clothes, not working
IRONY:
 no rings on their fingers, nice home & clothes
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SUBTEXT:
 men = dogs, animals, need to be trained, cleaned up after, kept on
leashes
 BUT then a strange event occurs:
 the subtext turns on the target audience, usually unintentionally -
women = stereotypes: sit around all day (in nice clothes, in a nice home) drinking
coffee & gossiping … while the “puppy” works “like a dog”
 women = philogynists
 lesbians are man-haters
TOULMIN:
 Claim: men = puppies
 Grounds: none – stereotyping, overgeneralizing, male-bashing
(philogyny), sexism
 Warrant: claim is NOT warranted by the grounds
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(4) Goodyear Tire’s
“G800 Supersteels Advertisement”
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
Text:
 “After a 36,000-mile tune-up,
 I hit the brakes at 50”

Image:
 Car on a jetty, near the edge
 Jetty has rubber barrier

discussed in Judith Williamson’s Decoding
Advertisements (London: Marion Boyars,
1978)
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
SUBTEXT:
 Jetty = Tire –
▪ Jetty’s shape suggests tire’s shape
▪ outside of the jetty resembles the outside of a tire
▪ “the whole jetty is one big [tire]”
▪ Jetty’s quality suggests the tire’s
▪ jetty is tough, strong, formidable
▪ withstands water’s punishment and withstands erosion or wear
▪ hardy, durable, resilient qualities transferred to the tires
 Jetty relationship to the car = tire’s to the car ▪ the jetty surrounds, encloses, & protects the car
▪ the tire protects the car, driver
▪ the part protecting the whole
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
SUBTEXT:
 Logo Recognition –
▪ brand name, emblem
▪ recognize the name
▪ associate certain traits with the brand
▪ accept (even unconsciously) traits about its product
▪ hold certain expectations for its products
 Celebrity Endorsement –
▪ famous race-car driver
▪ transfer his authority in one area to another
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
SUBTEXT:
 Too Far? –
▪ A small white car rushing out to the tip of the cylindrical
jetty
▪ that’s protruding from the body of land into a body of water and
▪ that’s encircled by a rubber coating
▪ Is prevented from going into the rippling water
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
Car = sperm
Jetty = a phallus
Rubber coating = prophylactic
Water = yoni
Jetty’s action = prophylactic, preventative, protective
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END