Rhetoric of Adverstising - Notes by Apurva

Following is the presentation notes on Perspective IV Semester lesson 'Rhetoric of Adverting' by Stuart Hirschberg. The presentation was made for II year JPEng class by Apurva on 19 Nov.

--------------------------------------------------------

Overview

• Introduction
• Techniques used in Advertising
• Emotional appeals used in Advertising
• The Language of Advertising
• The Ethical Dimensions of Persuasion

Introduction

• What is an advertisement?

1. Anything that aims to sell a product
2. Product can be an object (soap), an idea, a person (politics, CV’s), a belief (Aryan supremacy)

• Why are advertisements made?

1. To persuade the consumer about the superiority of a product/idea/person/belief

Elements in Advertising

• Advertisements, like mini-arguments, have elements like:

1. Pathos (Emotional appeal)
2. Logos (Logic and Reasoning)
3. Ethos (Credibility of Advertiser)

• Use of visual and verbal elements

The techniques of Advertising

• Establishing superiority of product
• TRANSFERING ideas, attributes, feelings from outside the product onto the product itself, by:

1. Encouraging the consumer to focus on positive attributes of product
2. Discouraging consumer from focusing on negative attributes of product

How the techniques work

• Claim to fulfill deep seated human drives
• Promise of delivering unattainable satisfactions – intangible ideas through TANGIBLE objects
• The power of association
• Offering consumers the chance to recreate their personality, past, relationships, THEMSELVES

Emotional Appeals (Pathos)

• Exploit emotional needs of consumer, such as:

1. Social Acceptance - use of “YOU”, sense of belonging to a group
2. Snob Appeal - value warrant
3. Nostalgia - “the good old days”
4. Patriotism - “owning the product makes me a good citizen”
5. Fear – the most exploited emotion

The Language of Advertising

• Ethos (credibility) – “we’re the good guys, so you can buy our products”
• Logos (logic, reasoning, wording)
• How ads use words to convince the consumer

1. Authoritative-sounding results
2. Technical and scientific terms
3. Weasel Words

Authoritative-sounding results

• Independent labs, teams of research scientists, physicians etc. come up with statistics, without ever saying how the survey was conducted, what methods were used, who interpreted the results.

Technical and scientific terms

• Used to give impression of a scientific breakthrough
• Technical jargon used to convince the common consumer about reliability of product

Weasel Words

• Used to evade legal responsibility

1. Help – not succeed
2. Fight – might win or lose
3. Virtually – not really
4. Up to – no guarantee
5. For as long as – no guarantee

The Ethical Dimension of Persuasion

• Ethical questions are implicit in every act of persuasion : asking the consumer to think YOUR way
• How should we look at ads?

1. Success in persuasion
2. Responsibility of fulfilling claims

• Open dialogue vs. persuasion always being one-sided
• Unethical techniques used to persuade consumer

Mass persuasion

• Ethical aspect specially relevant in context of using propaganda as a form of mass persuasion
• Example: Hitler’s Aryan Supremacy propaganda

Questions that can be asked

• What are the three dimensions of advertising? – Pathos (emotions), Logos (language), Ethos (credibility), enumerate based on word limit.

• To what effect is technical language used in ads? – slides 14 to 16

• How do the ads ensure that they do not face legal consequences? – Weasel words, slide 17

• Discuss the need for advertisements from the point of view of

1. Manufacturer : in order to sell his products, make profit
2. Marketing executive : has to make his products fit for market through advertisements
3. Advertising agencies : ads are their fodder because they exist to sell products at competitive prices
4. Consumer : in order to get information abut the different varieties of products/services offered, in order to be able to choose the best product/service

• Examine how ads use the element of pathos. – slides 9 to 13

• Write about the ethical paradox Hirschberg talks mentions in the chapter. – slides 18 (3rd point) to 19

• How do advertising techniques work?/ How do advertisements use the power of association? – slides 5 to 8

• How do industrial conglomerates utilize the element of ethos? – slide 14, “Chevron” example, the paragraph about the industrial conglomerates

Certificate Course in Indian Philosphy

Certificate Programme in Indian Philosophy

Dates: December 2-6 and 8-13 & 15, 2008

Time: 4 pm to 8 pm.

Venue: 102, Christ University

Course Fee: Rs 1000 for students. Others: Rs 1500

Coordinator: Anil Pinto, Dept of Media Studies (Room:107)

For further details email :

ajpinto42 at gmail dot com

Computer Aided Langauge Learning (CALL) Related Journals

(Reporduced from ELTECS -ECR Newslist)

1) ReCALL
http://www.eurocall-languages.org/recall/index.html
ReCALL is a new international journal published
by EuroCALL that is the largest European
academic association in CALL.

2) Language Learning and Technology Journal
http://llt.msu.edu/
LLTJ is an electronic journal on language
learning and technology that started
publication in July 1997.

3) Educational Technology & Society
(ISSN 1436-4522)
http://www.ifets.info/
ETS is an electronic journal on educational
technology. There are many on-line articles
with tecnical suggestions.

4) The Internet TESL Journal
http://iteslj.org/
ITESLJ is an electronic journal on Teaching
English as a Foreign Language in Japan.
There are many on-line articles with practical
suggestions.

5) Teaching English with Technology
http://www.iatefl.org.pl/call/callnl.htm
TET is an electronic journal for Teachers
of English pulished by IATEFL Poland
Computer Special Interest Group.

6) MOJeL (iJeLLT Journal)
http://pkukmweb.ukm.my/mojel/
Malaysian Online Journal of e-Learning
(MOJeL) ISSN:1985-6024 Formerly known
as iJeLLT (Internet Journal of e-Learning and
Teaching, since January 2004 until December
2007), MOJeL (Malaysian Online Journal of
e-Learning in Institutions of Higher Learning,
since January 2008) is devoted to the
dissemination of information concerning
the application of e-learning in learning
and teaching.
It is published twice a year on the Web.
MOJeL is a fully refereed electronic journal.
that publishes articles, research studies, reports,
software and book reviews related to online
language learning and teaching.PacCALL Journal

7) Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication
http://jcmc.indiana.edu/
JCMC is a quarterly electronic journal published
by University of Southern California since 1995.

8) The IALL Journal
http://iallt.org/iallj.html
The IALL Journal is the primary publication
of the International Association for Language
Learning Technology, and a subscription
to the Journal is included with membership
in that organization. Established in 1965,
IALL is a professional organization dedicated
to promoting effective uses of media centers
for language teaching, learning, and research.
IALL's membership represents hundreds of
institutions of varying sizes and educational
levels. The majority of the Journal's readers
are administrators or technical support staff
of language labs, ESL labs, and other centers
in which technology is applied to language
teaching and learning; the readership also
includes language faculty/teachers who
use technology.
The Journal is a fully refereed professional
journal, published twice yearly: in May and
in October.

9) ALT Journal
http://www.alt.ac.uk/alt_j.html
An international journal devoted to research
and good practice in the use of learning
technologies within tertiary education.

10) JALT CALL Journal
http://jaltcall.org/journal/
The JALT CALL Journal (ISSN 1832-4215) is
an international refereed journal published
from April, 2005. The Journal encompasses
and builds upon the SIG newsletter, C@lling
Japan, and is committed to excellence in
research in all areas within the field of
Computer Assisted Language Learning,
while at the same time offering teaching
ideas and suggestions from teachers'
personal experiences. The JALT CALL
Journal is published three times a year:
April, August and December.

Some traffic statistics of this blog

During the last 24 hours the traffic to my blog has been from:
India [45%]
United States [14%]
Pakistan [7%]
Indonesia [3%]
Australia [3%]
United Kingdom [3%]
Turkey [3%]
Canada [3%]
Morocco [3%]
Nigeria [3%]
El Salvador [3%]
United Arab Emirates [3%]
France [3%]

Within India, the traffic has been from Guwahati, Calcutta, Durgapur, Delhi, Bombay, Pune, Bangalore, Mangalore, Madras, Vishakapattanam, Mysore, and Hyderabad.

Incidentally, on Aug 30 I had put a counter on my blog to see how many visit the blog. When I checked after 53 days total visits were 7,033! That's almost 132 clicks per day. Out of which 3,959 (about 4,000) are unique clicks.

I must confess, I am happy to know that the work is reaching to that many people!

Talk on Justice and Difference - Info Sent by Anup Dhar

Centre for Internet & Society
& monster album OF feminist stories
invite you to
a public talk by
Dr. Shefali Moitra
on
Justice and Difference

Traditionally justice and impartiality are thought to be inseparable. In a pluralistic context there is a demand for making justice difference-sensitive. This may appear an attempt at squaring the circle. Many feminists think difference can be accommodated without compromising justice. The speaker will critically examine this thesis.

Day, Date & Time: Friday, 14th November, 2008, 4:00 pm
Venue: Centre for Internet and Society (www.cis-india.org)

No. D2, 3rd Floor, Sheriff Chambers
14, Cunningham Road, Bangalore,
Karnataka 560052,
Phone: 080-4092-6283‎

'Ulysses' notes/Links

1. Notes by George P Landow - Pay attention to the last four links at the end of the write up
2. Good old Wiki
3. From Sparknotes

Points to keep in mind
1. The poem as a dramatic monologue
2. Representations of early 19 century English cultural imaginations
3. Spirit of travel and adventure

Expectations of the students of I MA English from the Linguistics Course

Expectations of the students of I MA English with Communication Studies

1. Thorough training in Phonetics
2. Good grasp of grammar in order to write and speak flawless English
3. Grounding in the dynamics of language construction in all cultures and linguistic families

Expectations of the Teacher
1. Attendance: SMS attendance, so be in the class right from the beginning.

II Semester MA English (Nov 2008 – Mar 2009) Linguistics Course Plan

Total No of Hours (approx) : 60

Topics	No of Hours	Dates /Remarks
Introduction to the course	1	Nov
Phonetics: Definition and branches. Brief sketch of articulatory, acoustic and auditory phonetics Speech: Formation of speech. Speech mechanisms: Air stream, phonatory, articulatory and resonatory mechanisms Classification of speech sounds: Segmentals and suprasegmentals a. Segmentals : Vowels and Consonants Classification of consonants: Place and manner of articulation, voiceless ad voiced consonants Classification of vowels: Concept of cardinal vowels b. Suprasegmentals: Stress, pitch, tone, and intonation c. Semivowels and diphthongs: Formation and classification d. Sounds formed using non-pulmonic air stream: Ejectives, implosives and clicks	16	Nov
Phonology: Definitions of phoneme and allophones. Phonemic analysis with reference to Indian languages. Distinctive feature analysis. Syllable: Types and structure of Syllables	8	Dec
Morphology: Concepts of morph, morpheme, and allomorph and their relationship. Morphemic analysis. Morpheme types-inflectional and derivational. Word: Definition, types, process of word formation	4	Dec
Introduction to Linguistics. Concept of Linguistics. Branches of Linguistics	4	Jan
Language : Definition, nature, properties and functions of language, sub-systems of language	4	Jan
Communication: Definition, nature, requirements and types of communication	2	Feb
Syntax: Syntactic analysis, I.C. Analysis, Phrase structure grammar, Transformational grammar, components of functions of grammar. Acceptability and grammaticality of sentences.	12	Feb
Semantics: Concept of meaning. Different types of meanings. Concepts of synonyms, homonyms and antonyms. Semantic ambiguity.	4	Feb
Introduction to semiotics: Saussure, Pierce, and Barthes; Discourse analysis and Pragmatics	4	Mar
Psycholinguistics: Introduction to psycholinguistics. Competence and Performance. Language acquisition in children. Major theories	4	Mar
Introduction to Indian linguistic traditions	2	Mar
Feedback	1	Mar

Teaching Methods

There will be a lot of practical work in the classroom and carry home work. You will do a lot of practice in pairs and groups. In the month of November and December please carry Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary by Daniel Jones 17 ed. to all the classes. Supplementary reading will be announced from time to time.