Hey Rhetorical Critics!
Thanks for joining us today in the trenches of Holiday Retail Hypnosis!!!! To add to your experience, you may want to visit http://www.target.com/gp/homepage.html/601-8364409-2468921 for more Target info and ideas.
"Rhetoric's definition: the art of persuasion, suggests power [at play]. So much of what we recieve from others--from family to friends to 30 second blurbs on TV--is intended to persuade. Recognizing how this is done gives greater power to choose." (Villanueva Jr, in 'Envision' by Alfano and Obrian, 2005, p. 3).
How do the bullseye design and the Target Dog make an argument? What is the argument?
What type of reasoning (rhetorical strategy) does the advertising you observed on our lil' field trip employ? Narrative, or a story which sells?
What about comparison/contrast?
Or examples and illustrations to show how products can be used or make the buyer feel?
Or definitions?
Or analogies?
Or cause and effect?
Did you see appeals made to logic (facts), emotion, including language and/or humor, and/or appeals to authority and/or character?
Who is Target's ""TARGET"" customer? How do you know? What did you see in the store, on TV and/or on the web that tells you who the Target customer is. Who is left out of Target's customer appeals, be they visual, written and/or marketing tactics? Consider gender, race and/or (dis)ability as well as age and income levels.
Please post your questions and comments about this final, (due on 12/15 by 1130am at the very latest) below so we can all learn from each others challenges and concerns for clarification and insight. Students are encouraged to help give input on each others postings and enrich the unique learning community I have so enjoyed participating in with all of you over the course of this semester! It has been a real pleasure to get to know you all and explore unusual paths of learning. Keep in touch and please take this from our time together: Learn the rules in order to break them intelligently and don't EVER settle for boredom, don't produce it or accept it either!
8 comments:
Oh no, I'm making the first comment... what pressure! :) Just kidding. The Target experience today helped me to see that everywhere you look, you are being persuaded to think a certain way, act a certain way, be a certain way, etc. From the brand names of products to their advertisements, we are constantly being manipulated to feel and be and act in one way or another. This final assignment was a good way for us to take what we have learned in the class and apply it to everyday use. I just want to say that I have enjoyed this class a lot! Thank you Sandra for making this class interesting and entertaining, while educational at the same time. I was very nervous to take an argumentation class, but it ended up being a GREAT class! I will definatly try to stay in touch and consult you about Sac State teachers (I need you to tell me which ones are good). And to my classmates, thanks for being such a fun class. I think I was able to learn something from each of you. Happy Holidays all!!!
ADRIANA
It's crazy to see all the advertisement we see day by day, it seems like everywhere you look your being persuaded. I mean even whrn you go to the doctor, all it take is a step outside your house and you'll start noticing stuff, from the kinds of cars, the houses on sale, toys kids are playing with. I must admit target is one of my favorite store, half the time i go in there i dont buy anything, because they have so many things i want, from Cds to make up, jewlery, i mean even some of their clothes are cute. I think is one of the few stories that appeal to a lot of people. Because their prices do vary, they have cheap stuff and not so cheap, in other words their prices vary and give people options. In all the Target experience made me look and think about things i normally wouldn't have.
Sandra this was probably the funnest class ive had so far in my college carreer(ahaha which isnt very long), I can honesly say learning was fun in your class. I hope you keep it the same and dont fall into the boring college classes routine. Oh, and i loved all your oufits, if i even need fashion advice ill know who to come to. See you next semester..Interpersonal COMM here i come...lol
Now to all...ill be on a plane to Mexico next thur..yay fun fun... so odds are i wont be able to see you all if u decide to go out...but think about me!! i enjoyed having class with all of you.
Some things I noticed that I had never given much thought to as a shopper are the amount of items that are specifically “target”ed towards a one gender or another. For example, all but like 2 fitness videos had pictures of women on the cover. Also, in the toys section there were signs that designated what age group the toys were best for, but not for what gender, nevertheless the section was definitely split up into “boy’s aisles” with cars and action figures and “girl’s aisles” with lots of pink and dolls. It’s kind of funny to me how stores play off of stereotypes of what certain types of people are supposed to like. When I was a kid I loved Hot Wheels. It would be very hard to find a t-shirt with a car on it in the girls clothing section. It kind of makes me wonder why society seems to have to profile people. Do little girls really like Barbie more than the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? If so, why is that?
That said, good luck on finals everyone and have fun and relaxing winter break!
Brian...Maybe you can write a new textbook using Hockey as a theme for Argument?? Shellee, you're right, Target markets according to "generalizations" therefore, they must carefully gaurd against making Hasty Generalizations! (Fallacy watch!)Rose and Julie, I agree with your observations concerning awareness, we get desensitized to he constant barrage of marketing in our fast paced world! Ever so often it is good to slow down and take a critical assessment of what is going on! Adriana, your point that sometimes department stores are so overwhelming we can't even decide on a purchase is actually kind of funny in a way...Alex, the colors assigned to genders is an appeal to what? The way we've always done it, remember that fallacy? Does anyone want to ask questions about the 14 terms and how you plan to apply them in your final assignment? Thanks for the very kind compliments, I hope you all keep in touch with me and with each other!Blogorama
Yes Bea and Alfredo, we saw lots of stimulus overload which pushes an argument forward with urgency! And thanks too! What do you guys think about the white dog and the red target mottiff in the ad for Target that says: "See. Spot. Run" What kind of reasoning is that and what fallacy does it employ? [HINTS: 1. Punctuation...
#2. Where does the phrase "See spot run" come from????] For the first one to solve this correctly, Three points toward your final!!!
After walking out of the Target store I was blinded by RED. Red was E V E R Y W H E R E! I agree with everyone’s statements including Bea and Alfredo. Now that I am an expert in argumentation I can see many different fallacies including hasty generalizations, causal reasoning, bandwagon appeal and emotional appeals. People walk into the stores not realizing that much of their holiday buying experience is influenced by so many distractions. How can we shop with so much red around...doesn't it clash?
See Dick. See Jane. See Spot.
See Spot run. Run Spot. Run, run, run.
Look, look, look. See, see, see.
See Spot run.
Run, run, run.
According to [alphasmart.com] the author says "Any reader understands the context of this story. Siblings Dick and Jane own a
constantly running dog. Since they appear powerless to stop the dog, they are left with nothing other than to watch the dog run . . . and run . . . and run.
See Spot Run comes is all about sentence fluency! Adding interest to the story is important.
As far as the class went I believe it’s the best class E V E R! I had the opportunity to be in both of Sandra’s classes and would recommend them to anyone. It was a great time and I was able to meet new friends in both classes. And I’m not just saying that because final grades aren’t in yet…but its all true! Sandra you’re my hero! Talk to everyone later! Good luck on finals. Cheers.
HOOT
Chris, this comment is...it is well, weird, but interesting too! There is some equivocation at play: See. (FInd the thing to buy) Spot (look at it/imagine the cute Target Dog and Run (implies getting out of the store quickly and easily!) I think using Children's story rhetoric makes the whole idea of going to Target seem like "child's play"--simple!
Thank for being our class blog expert! Signed, Your Hero
I thought that our "Trip" to Target for a Final was better then taking a test. I really had fun. I felt that there were many fallacies in Target. Like Appeal to emotion and appeal to authority. I felt that it had appeal to emotion because of how the store was decorated and how there were posters of people being together smiling. The Appeal to authority would have been the name brand clothes, like Mossimo. Many people knows that Mossimo is one of Targets main brand so they notice it right away when they enter the clothing department.
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