Your Advertisement

My ad is for Harley Davidson motorcycles. The ad is very artistic and creative with the way it uses all the parts of a motorcycle to create the face of a human. I got it from a Rolling Stones magazine. This magazine most likely has many males over the age of 30 that are amongst its readers. The target audience are most likely males above the age of 30 that have a rock n' roll personality. The ad's design seems to resemble this personality with its artistic and eccentric representation. The ad uses its white space very well in the way that you don't even notice it. It correlates well with the layout of the magazine ad. The ad immediately catches the readers attention, especially if they catch that the parts make up a face. They they begin to look at it longer once they notice this in order to figure out what the ad is telling them. They then draw their eye to the corner of the page where it has a picture of a bike in full completion saying "build your own". It is a very clever and creative way to send the message they are trying to get across.

Elements of an Effective Layout

I believe the analytical tool seems to be elements: balance, proportion, movement, utility, clarity and emphasis are key components of a strong layout.

My ad that I chose is a Harley Davidson ad that shows a bunch of parts needed to assemble a motorcycle in the pattern of a face. The advertisement is telling the consumer to build their own motorcycle that most resembles them. It is giving the owner a chance to put there own creative touch, as well as personality aspects on the motorcycle.

When first looking at the ad, the reader may just see all the various parts laying on a page. As they look closer, it is easy for them to see it makes a human face. The neck of the assembled face leads down to a bike that is completed. The balance then makes sense to the onlooker.

Along with balance, the main aspects from "Elements of an Effective Layout" is the emphasis. The are emphasizing that no bike is the same. Unlike cars, which are mostly custom, Harley Davidson wants the consumer to be able to customize their bike. They want the person to feel like they are the only individual that has the exact bike they have.

All the elements seem to make sense to me. They can all be used very strongly within an ad or they can be limited depending on which message they are trying to send. Simplicity is probably the most important so you don't confuse the consumer. I don't think this ruins advertising. Advertising is an attempt to sell a product, no matter what that may be. It is up to the consumer to understand this and make an intelligent decision amongst themselves.

Democracy of Goods

After reading the article "The Appeal of the Democracy of Goods" I think the analytical tool being used is the advertisement from the Ladies Home Journal that is being read. The thesis however, I believe is in the second paragraph when it explains the most persuasive advertising strategies of the 1920's. It says, "According to this idea, the wonders of modern mass production and distribution enabled everyone to enjoy society's most desirable pleasures, conveniences, with each advertiser who used the formula." They compare the average person to the riches while explaining although the richer may have the luxury's no one can enjoy this type of coffee anymore than the next. The article then organizes itself into balance, movement, unity, proportion, clarity and simplicity, and emphasis. These five elements state how an advertisement needs to be set up in order to be effective to the consumer.

Advertising

At this time in year, there have been a lot of holiday ads that are always appealing to me. Most of the time, the companies are using Santa Claus as a character while trying to sell all their products. The one that caught my eye is a Chevy commercial who has a car salesman looking exactly like Santa Claus while dressed up in a suit. He has the massive white beard and the big belly. At the beginning he walks into an employees room and the rest of the employees are looking at him because he had ate all the cookies that were left on the table the night before. It is a funny scene because all the employees know the guy isn't Santa Claus but he wants to be him since its Christmas time. At the end of the commercial, the Santa character is helping a customer with a truck. The customer says "yeh, I could really use a silverado since I like to hunt". Santa responds "Oh yeah? What do you like to hunt?" The Customer then replies immediately, "Dear!" he then looks at who he was talking to, realizing he looks just like Santa and corrects himself by saying, "Fish!"

This was a funny commercial and caught my attention mostly because of the Santa Claus character within the commercial. The sense of humor made me like it as well. Companies know Santa sells, so a lot of them are featuring him in their commercials during this time of year. 

As far as an ineffective commercial, its hard for me to think of one. The most recent would have been the chase sapphire credit cards regarding customer service. They show a customer service person talking like an automated recording. They go on to say, "We know how you hate customer service automation, and so do we". I just felt the commercial is overdue, and that they need to come up with a better way of representing their customer service. 

Cited Works

Clayton, John, Ashley Fox, James Walker, Paul Kuharsky, and Mike     

Sando. "NFL Power Rankings Week 7 - National Football League

- ESPN." ESPN: The Worldwide Leader In Sports. ESPN, 19 Oct.

2011. Web. 20 Oct. 2011.<http://espn.go.com/nfl/powerrankings>.

Staff, Pro Football Reference. "Green Bay Packers Team Encyclopedia

– Pro-Football-Reference.com." Pro-Football-Reference.com - Pro

Football Statistics and History. Pro Football Reference, 2010. Web. 19 Oct. 2011. <http://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/gnb/>.

"SuperBowl Winners List, Teams and Scores!" Super Bowl History ::

 Fascinating History of the NFL SuperBowl History! Super Bowl

History Website, 2011. Web. 22 Oct. 2011. <http://www.super-

bowl-history.us/superbowl-winners-list.html>.

Staff, NFL.com. "NFL.com History." NFL.com - Official Site of the

National Football League. NFL Enterprises LLC, 2011. Web. 19

Oct. 2011. <http://www.nfl.com/history>.

Approach to Style

I liked that the "An Approach to Style" mentioned rewriting sentences in order to understand how style can change through every word. This seems to be something that has always helped me. I can almost never write a sentence the way I want the first time I actually put it down. Writing with nouns and verbs seems like it gives the paper better imagery and voice. Nouns and verbs are probably the best way to paint a picture of what you are trying to say. Overwriting applies to me because I can drag certain ideas on while trying to explain them. They make a good point that a computer can be dangerous because your fingers can take over and have you end up writing a bunch of nonsense. This also falls under #11 with trying to explain too much.
Writing in a way that comes naturally is obvious to me. I don't think I can write in any other way than the way that naturally comes to me. Critiquing how it comes out may be a better way of explaining this approach. They are all good things to keep in mind when writing and revising because they can all be used and thought of in one way or another.

Letter from Birmingham Jail

   Unproudly, I had never read any of Dr. Kings writings before. While I was reading this actual piece of his work I quickly realized he was a very intelligent man. I felt like he spoke very humbly throughout the entire letter. He sounds like a man with way more years of wisdom then he actually possessed. His tone was in a way that my grandmother would speak to me if she was trying to get a point across to me. I believe he is talking to his fellow black culture, and explaining his reason upon why he still chose to march in protest knowing he would be thrown in jail. As a reader, he never directly tells us the type of criticism he has received, but he mentions in the beginning that he is responding to criticism that he has got for his protest. Even though he may be irritated with the criticism that he has received, he uses a tone that is well mannered and mature. It is impressive how he seems to be handling his time in jail. He seems to know exactly what he is doing as he explains his reasoning for the protest. He talks about why unjust laws need to be broken rather than obeyed. His tone while attempting to explain why is very intelligent. A logical fallacy that I noticed was hasty generalizations. He gives an example of christianity taking 2000 years to come in to effect so expecting the problem of race on blacks to be overcome in 340 years is treated impossible. I think the only part that may have been ineffective about his letter may have been the intelligence of it. Many may have not completely understood exactly what he was trying to say. However, if slowly read and interpreted, I believe his letter was excellent in its intentions. I can use this within my persuasive to help me realize to slowly explain arguments and give examples in order to support them.