Patriotic Ads : How We Make Decisions

What does an ad say about a society? When viewing a product advertisement, many people never stop to think why the ad and product appeals to them. However, when a more critical look is taken, it’s easy to see precisely how ads are carefully tailored to appeal to trending values of a targeted demographic, and how that makes it easy to examine the society of those whom the ad is targeted at. In the analytic writing Advertisements R Us, Melissa Rubin provides an excellent example of this, as she crafts a logical and clear analysis of a 1950’s Coca-Cola magazine ad which thoroughly explains how advertisements can reveal quite a great deal about the society in which they were created.

Every day, companies present the people with advertisements everywhere they go. Advertisements have become very prevalent in today’s society nowadays focusing in on a negative connotation. Advertisement has become an effective way for producers to display their new products. In present day, they come in forms of billboards, flyers, e-mails, and even text messages. It is widely known that companies create advertisements to persuade people to buy specific products or goods; however, it is not widely known that advertisements can make a negative impact on today’s society. The companies manipulate people’s mind and emotions, swaying people by new promotions and therefore generating a strong desire to fit into the society, that causes them to make inessential expenditures. Advertisements pose a critical impact on the American culture.

For the longest time now, advertising has played a huge role in how we identify ourselves in the United States with the American culture, and how others identify themselves with all the cultures of the rest of the world as well. It guides us in making everyday decisions, such as what items we definitely need to invest our money on, how to dress in-vogue, and what mindset we should have to prosper the most. Although advertising does help make life easier for most, at the same time it has negative affects on the people of society as well. Advertisement discreetly manipulates the beliefs, morals, and values of our culture, and it does so in a way that most of the time we don’t even realize it’s happened. In order to reach our main goal of

Commercials airing on the television or radio, the billboards on the side of the freeways trying to grab your attention to buy their product, even while scrolling through various social media platforms, we go through our day to day lives with advertisements all around us. In Jack Solomon’s essay, Masters of Desire: The Culture of American Advertising, he states that the main purpose of all these advertisements is to show us our unhappiness within the American dream. He goes on to describe the differences in these advertisements which are known as the populist ads and the elite ads. Solomon's description of the contradiction between populism and elitism very much affects the way advertising and media is portrayed in American society.

In Barbara Kingsolver's essay she mentions “our iconography grew out of war” meaning that the flag that mean so much to Americans has been related more to death, war, and hatred instead of Americans having freedom and and stopping the wars because war is not the answer to everything People are losing their lives over our American flag when we need to come together teach positive things instead of fighting and hatred. Dave Barry feels that the advertisements are misleading the Americans. The same way Kingsolver’s think about the American flag it is misleading to American citizens. I like Barry's argument that commercials are misleading to Americans because they portray one thing but mean another. Diane Ravitch feels in her essay there are two

As an illustration, the political ad “We are America” by Hillary Clinton gives us an image of Donald Trump’s flaws in her opinion. She opens the advertisement with the words, “We are America” after the words an American Flag appears. The flag depicts the unity of Americans and then Trump’s voice appears in the background. The imagery provides multiple faces of different

In “Propaganda Techniques in Today 's Advertising” by Ann McClintock, the author discusses how Americans are being brainwashed by advertisements and the different techniques they use to catch our attention. Ads are simply everywhere we look, it is impossible to get through the day without seeing one. All advertising companies put tons of research into how consumers spend money or even vote. Once these companies finish their research, they create advertisements that appeal to the masses. The basic propaganda techniques that McClintock writes about are Name Calling, Glittering Generalities, Transfer, Testimonial, Plain Folks, Card Stacking, and Bandwagon. Each one of these propaganda techniques is used in specific ways by advertisers to sell their product or service to consumers. I have selected a political ad which uses the Glittering Generalities technique, a coffee ad that uses Transfer technique, a soda ad that uses the Testimonial technique, and a soup ad that uses the Name Calling technique.

The United States is presently at war in Iraq and Afghanistan where American troops are fighting and dying. At home, cars and homes display solid yellow or red, white, and blue ribbons that call for Americans to “Support Our Troops.” It is patriotic for Americans to support their daughters and sons fighting in a war, but this patriotism does not mean that Americans must blindly support the decision to go to war. Being patriotic means that Americans must do the opposite: they must question their government. Questioning the government, voting, and respecting the rights of others are what makes true patriots in a democratic society; blind following of one’s government creates dictatorships.

The image “Corporate American Flag” may perhaps on another view point be perceived by means of 50 companies that rule the country that are greedy. By using constant commercials to drill the brand into the viewers, causing the brain to recognize their logos leading the viewers towards them. Through the market share of the commercial,

In 1941, after the attack on Pearl Harbor the “War Advertising Council” was established to offer advertising services towards the efforts of World War II. When the war ended the word “war” was dropped from the name, and the Ad Council was born. Since then “the Ad Council has offered trusted advice and inspiring calls-to-action. In fact, we created the category of public service advertising, and our icons and slogans are woven into the very fabric of American culture”. (Ad Council)

In the propaganda, Remember December 7th, originally published in 1942 by the United States Office of War Information and designed by Allen Sandburg, succeeded in encouraging vengeance on the Japanese for their horrible attack on Pearl Harbor. The poster features a quotation from Abraham Lincoln’s Address, “...we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain…” According to the article, “World War II: Commemorating Pearl Harbor, 1941,” this propaganda was, “intended to promote a sense of nationalism and boost support for the war effort. It combines imagery suggesting the destruction of the base-smoke and a tattered American flag” (Trenholm). The article implies that the famous words on this poster became the battle-cry of the Americans. This was what sparked their patriotic feelings and pride in their nation. Through the use of imagery and slogans, more citizens participated in the war effort in order to take revenge on Japan by heightening their patriotic spirit. Therefore, propagandas effectively influenced people to play their role in the war to fight for freedom, thus doing what is

The Romney-Ryan campaign presents its advertisement Strong America as an appeal to logos, which is intended to convince its audience by reasoned argument. In conformance with the teachings of Jib Fowles in his “Advertising’s 15 Basis Appeals”, the political advertisement is, really, though, an appeal to pathos or its audience’s more easily moved passions. If the ad makes any ethos appeals at all, these appeals are co-opted as subtleties or subliminal suggestions within its more overwhelming overt pandering. Strong America was released in wake of the Obama administration’s proposal that draconian cuts be made to the U.S. military budget. The ads arguments are broadly directed at the general electorate and, more, specifically, towards its

to represent that, that I felt like a doll for so long.” Said Cara Delevingne, supermodel.

The viewer sits on the couch, nestled inside a cozy, warm blanket with a large bowl of buttery and salty popcorn on his lap. His heart starts racing as the movie reaches its climax. Just as his lungs stop breathing and his eyes grow wide with fascination, the channel changes to an old advertisement that he’s seen a thousand times. Ads like that one appeal to the three main techniques that have subliminal messages to viewers. These different techniques have proven to be effective with television watchers. Advertisers use these three techniques to target a certain audience.

“What is technology?” Have you ever marveled about the prominence of technology in our day-to-day lives? If you ever have, you have undoubtedly appreciated its complexity and its capability to make everyday responsibilities easier for yourself. For example, you probably admire how cellphones have completely eradicated the old-fashioned method of communicating, by sending mail to friends and relatives. Or how the invention of laptops and computers have brought up a new, more efficient method to stay in touch with the world, though the internet, rather than the previous method of newspapers. However, all these basic ideas of the importance of technology are ideas of what technology has done for you, and can be completely different for others. Have you ever wondered what technology has done for others, perhaps people not in the same circumstances as you, perhaps of a different age, religion, race, gender, or socio-economic status than you? Maybe you haven’t, but Microsoft, a leading technological superpower, certainly have wondered about this as seen in their “Empowering” ad.