Web project 1: Apply Rank's intensify/downplay schema to a commercial that aired during the Super Bowl
To complete your Week 1 project you will need to choose an ad that aired during the 2015 Superbowl then use Rank's intensify/downplay schema to analyze the persuasive strategies used in the commercial. Make sure to complete this assignment and upload it BEFORE class begins on the day the work is due. You should be able to discuss your completed project without reading from your completed assignment word-for-word.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Complete your assignment in the program you use the most often (Office, Works, Google Docs, Open Office, etc...).
1)upload to turnitin and use feedback to improve your writing.
2) upload revised draft to turnitin by due date.
3) Print your completed, revised assignment and put in your binder.
A note on deaf accessiblity: Only 33% of commercials are closed captioned (according to Accessible Rhetoric.com, Nov. 6, 2010). This means that, in most cases, you are not considered the target for persuasion by TV advertisers. For this assignment, please visit my deaf-friendly superbowl ads list (very short list): http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF7ABA6AF084379B4
The project:
1) Go to youtube. Type in "Superbowl Ads 2015"
Hugh Rank has described a very simple model of persuasion where he describes the two basic (and opposite) patterns of intensification and downplay that are common to many persuasive situations.
Intensify
In Intensification, the persuader seeks to increase the significance of certain elements that they want the other person to take more seriously or see as particularly important.
Methods of Intensifying:
1) Repetition
Repetition of a word or visual pattern not only causes it to become remembered (which is persuasive in itself), it also leads people to accept what is being repeated as being true. Thus an advertiser of soap powder may focus on how wonderfully white clothes become by repeating the word 'whiteness'.
2) Association
Association links the item with an idea or something which already has emotional connotation, for example something desired or feared. The soap powder advertiser may thus use attractive people in wonderfully clean (but not too up-market) houses. It also is using the unspoken idea that cleanliness is desirable (and, by extension, extreme cleanliness is extremely desirable).
3) Composition
Intensification may also be enhanced through the overall composition of what is being presented, for example contrasting the message with an opposite. Thus the soap powder advertiser may start with a person wearing muddy clothes. Notice that compostion is about what we SEE in the commercial. Your answer here will focus on VISUAL DESCRIPTION.
Downplay
Downplaying is the opposite of intensification and can be done using the same (but reversed) techniques. In addition, the following three methods can be used.
Methods of Downplaying:
4) Diversion
When we divert or distract a person from something we do not want them to attend to, then we may succeed in reducing their attention to it. The soap powder advert may divert from concerns about damaging the environment by highlighting the small quantity of powder needed for each wash.
5) Omission
Another way of downplaying is simply to say nothing about the things that will counteract our arguments. Thus the soap powder manufacturer will not talk about the damaging effects of constant washing of clothes.
6) Confusion
Confusion may be used when the other person knows about an opposing argument. it may also be used to obfuscate weaknesses in one's own position. A typical way of doing this is by showering the other person with data, or perhaps asking them complex questions about their own position. Soap powder manufacturers may, for example, give a scientific argument about how their product works.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Complete your assignment in the program you use the most often (Office, Works, Google Docs, Open Office, etc...).
1)upload to turnitin and use feedback to improve your writing.
2) upload revised draft to turnitin by due date.
3) Print your completed, revised assignment and put in your binder.
A note on deaf accessiblity: Only 33% of commercials are closed captioned (according to Accessible Rhetoric.com, Nov. 6, 2010). This means that, in most cases, you are not considered the target for persuasion by TV advertisers. For this assignment, please visit my deaf-friendly superbowl ads list (very short list): http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF7ABA6AF084379B4
The project:
1) Go to youtube. Type in "Superbowl Ads 2015"
- Choose one of the ads that aired.
Hugh Rank has described a very simple model of persuasion where he describes the two basic (and opposite) patterns of intensification and downplay that are common to many persuasive situations.
Intensify
In Intensification, the persuader seeks to increase the significance of certain elements that they want the other person to take more seriously or see as particularly important.
Methods of Intensifying:
1) Repetition
Repetition of a word or visual pattern not only causes it to become remembered (which is persuasive in itself), it also leads people to accept what is being repeated as being true. Thus an advertiser of soap powder may focus on how wonderfully white clothes become by repeating the word 'whiteness'.
2) Association
Association links the item with an idea or something which already has emotional connotation, for example something desired or feared. The soap powder advertiser may thus use attractive people in wonderfully clean (but not too up-market) houses. It also is using the unspoken idea that cleanliness is desirable (and, by extension, extreme cleanliness is extremely desirable).
3) Composition
Intensification may also be enhanced through the overall composition of what is being presented, for example contrasting the message with an opposite. Thus the soap powder advertiser may start with a person wearing muddy clothes. Notice that compostion is about what we SEE in the commercial. Your answer here will focus on VISUAL DESCRIPTION.
Downplay
Downplaying is the opposite of intensification and can be done using the same (but reversed) techniques. In addition, the following three methods can be used.
Methods of Downplaying:
4) Diversion
When we divert or distract a person from something we do not want them to attend to, then we may succeed in reducing their attention to it. The soap powder advert may divert from concerns about damaging the environment by highlighting the small quantity of powder needed for each wash.
5) Omission
Another way of downplaying is simply to say nothing about the things that will counteract our arguments. Thus the soap powder manufacturer will not talk about the damaging effects of constant washing of clothes.
6) Confusion
Confusion may be used when the other person knows about an opposing argument. it may also be used to obfuscate weaknesses in one's own position. A typical way of doing this is by showering the other person with data, or perhaps asking them complex questions about their own position. Soap powder manufacturers may, for example, give a scientific argument about how their product works.