Tania Luna is a refugee from post-Chernobyl Ukraine. When she was one, the accident happened and she spent months in the hospital while her mother snuck in every night to be with her.  By the time she was five, she was so proud and happy to be living in her small village in the Ukraine, despite the situation. But then, when she was six, her family was granted asylum in the United States. Finding a penny on the floor of the “hotel” they were staying at was one of the happiest moments of her young life, because it meant she could buy Bazooka gum, which she could only get once a year in Ukraine. The TED talk is a reflection on the many small things that made her and her loved ones feel rich.

For example, the hotel she thought they were staying in turned out to be a homeless shelter, and one time a pizza was misdirectedly delivered to their home instead of a neighbors. She also mentions how her husband was also homeless as a child, but managed to keep a shoebox of comic books and toys that he treasured with his life, and their dog Scarlett who used to be used as bait in dog food but now lives with them in luxury.

I loved this TED talk because it is a reflection of gratitude. Even in the most desolate scenarios, Tania, her husband Brian, and even their dog, found happiness and were at peace with their situations. It goes to show how those who have the least can make the best out of the little they have. Now living in the general middle-class, they can think back on the times where they literally had nothing, but felt like millionaires. To me, that is inspiring and I think that it is not a feeling that many people in our society can relate to, including myself.

“We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller. We say to girls, ‘You can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful, but not too successful. Otherwise you will threaten the man.’ Because I am female, I am expected to aspire to marriage. I am expected to make my life choices always keeping in mind that marriage is the most important. Now marriage can be a source of joy and love and mutual support, but why do we teach girls to aspire to marriage and we don’t teach boys the same? We raise girls to see each other as competitors, not for jobs or for accomplishments, which I think can be a good thing, but for the attention of men. We teach girls that they cannot be sexual beings in the way that boys are. Feminist: the person who believes in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes,” is what Ms. Adichie said during her TED Talk entitled We Should All Be Feminists, and what Beyonce chose to include as a snippet in her song Flawless. I love that Adichie included both men and women in her definition and arguments about feminism. People typically don’t consider men in the realm of feminism, but they are just as involved and important to it. The world view that Adichie offered shows that there is so much more than what we perceive as Americans. There are many subtleties and intricate occurrences of sexism in addition to the glaringly obvious and extreme examples that attract media attention.

Watching Adichie’s TED Talk on why we should all be feminists was both inspiring and reaffirming. My journey to feminism has taken years. I originally started out thinking that feminists were crazy ladies harping on menial differences between the sexes. I thought that preaching “feminism” just highlighted and expanded the chasm between men and women instead of doing anything to fix it. My mom identifies as strongly feminist, and I thought she was crazy for doing so. Yes, we’ve come a long way in terms of women’s progress, but there is still so much more to do, and that is something I did not realize. As I grew up and became more aware of the world around me, the intrinsic societal discrepancies between the sexes became more and more apparent. I also realized that while the USA may have many women’s rights, most of the developing world is yet to reach this point. I tentatively began to identify with feminists, but stayed wary of the extremists. The recent social media movement #notallmen helps capture the less extreme sentiment that while we should support and empower women, men (for the most part) aren’t sexist pigs who we feminists should shame and put down. Adichie perfectly captured this outlook in her TED Talk, and she reaffirmed my still developing views on feminism and society.

Sarah D’Souza

ENGL 137H Section 027, Dr. Jessica O’Hara

Rhetorical Analysis: Advertisement

Due 10/16/2014

http://www.axepeace.com/#film

“Make love, not war,” is the anti-war motto of the 1960’s that is generally associated with hippies and the counterculture of the time. Starting with the Vietnam war, it has been invoked again and again over the years to protest the many wars around the world. The sentiment of this expression is not just free-spirited, but also sincere, nonviolent, and amorous. Contrastingly, the company AXE sells products with a reputation of being malodorous and overused. In addition to this, AXE typically has highly sexualized, and sometimes controversial, print and video advertisements. These two things are very different and seemingly should not be able to coexist, but the AXE Peace: Call to Arms commercial changes this.

The phrase “make love, not war,” is clearly illustrated, followed by a juxtaposition to the new product, AXE Peace, in this advertisement. Axe Peace is the company’s new line of peace shower gel, peace deodorant, and peace body spray, along with harmony shower gel and harmony body spray in honor of World Peace Day, which was September twenty-first. The commercial cuts between four different scenarios that start out in dire, war-torn settings. Between the tense music, expressive faces of the characters, and bleak settings, violence and utter destruction seem impending, until one woman stops in front of a tank about to fire. But the tank, a machine gun, a control panel for what is assumed to be a bomb, and what appears to be a communist rally all end up being something completely different than what you would expect, with each scene ending in favor of a kiss. This stresses the point of making love instead of war before introducing the new line of AXE Peace in the final seconds of the commercial. In addition to these juxtapositions, the commercial draws upon societal commonplaces and stereotypes as well as pathos and kairos in order to be rhetorically effective.

In the first scenario, a man escorted by multiple security personnel carries a briefcase that he is handcuffed to. Viewers can see that they are clearly supposed to be in and from the Middle East. The briefcase is placed on a table in front of an important-looking man, in an extravagantly decorated room, who proceeds to open the briefcase, revealing a control panel of sorts as he flips switches and prepares to press the clichéd big red button. The fact that this particular situation occurs in the Middle East draws upon commonplaces and stereotypes about terrorism and bombings while simultaneously creating kairotic connections to recent crises. The handcuffs and security detail in the beginning are suggestive of high classification for the briefcase and grand precautions as well. Many people will experience fear while viewing this scene due to the prevalence of  terroristic violence in today’s society that the Middle East is so often lumped together with. The pathos involved in just this one quarter of the commercial is a journey that takes the viewer from apprehension and fear to relief and contentment because the big red button turns out to be a switch for a firework show as a display of affection. The important-looking man and the woman across from him smile as he kisses her hand while the rest of the security men in the room applaud the light show outside the main window.

It is open for interpretation on what and where the second set of clips is from, but it is reasonable to assume that it may be representative of Crimea or the Ukraine and their respective conflicts with Russia. A tank rolls through a darkened gray street, crushing mirrors and a grotesque doll head underfoot. Most pedestrians are unfazed and go about their day-to-day travels as if this is a regular occurrence, until one woman steps out into the middle of the grimy road right in front of the tank’s path. She is immediately distinguished from the rest of the population by her vibrant red lipstick – the only real “color” in the scene. The fourth scenario is very similar with a presumably American soldier flying in on a helicopter to a remote village in Asia armed with a machine gun. The children flee, but one woman turns towards the noise and starts approaching the vehicle. Viewers are fearful and anxious as the gun of the tank swivels toward the lipsticked woman’s unwavering glare; while, halfway across the world, the soldier heads out of the helicopter and approaches the unarmed woman, gun in hand. But after this tense moment, the couples embrace. It is clear that both couples have been separated for an extended period, but have now been reunited in unexpected situations. There is a grand juxtaposition that exists between the menacing connotation of tanks and war vehicles and the way they are portrayed, facilitating romantic reunions. Again, the kairos surrounding the scenario makes it extremely relevant to  society and today’s ever changing world. It may remind viewers of certain events and locations in current events, but because no specific place is mentioned, it is also completely open to interpretation at the same time. The breadth of this scene makes for an especially striking and relevant appeal.

North Korea has been in the news many times in recent history, bringing back spots of inflammation from the red fever that was never truly cured. In the third scene, a militant leader is shown atop a balcony facing a highly organized sea of citizens. He raises his hand in salute and the crowd of officials behind him follow suit. When the leader nods a go-ahead signal to his right hand man, viewers may feel apprehensive, not knowing what is to come. But then, all of the members of the crowd proceed to put up a giant picture depicting the leader and his significant other in a heart. She is clearly taken aback and immediately reaches for his hand in a discreet but loving and appreciative gesture. This scene draws upon the commonplaces that are held about communist societies. Everyone in the crowd is dressed the same way and is arranged in formations that must have taken a considerable amount of organization and regulation. While the woman takes the leader’s hand as they both smile, there is no further physical display of affection between the two. This is typical of strict and conservative nations, despite the fact that the purpose of the entire assembly was to visually depict their love.

The AXE website states that “When love is in the air, aggression melts away and the world is at peace” (The AXE Peace Project). Their product is supposedly sparking and promoting love, which in turn creates peace and harmony. This is the train of thought that the company is following and assumes that viewers will as well. The men in these scenarios made the right decision and chose love over war. And according to the end of the commercial, the manner in which they did so was through using AXE products. While the reputation that AXE has come to have greatly contrasts with the connotation of a genuine and peaceful notion, the rhetoric of this advertisement unites the two.

Works Cited

“The AXE Peace Project.” AXE. Web. <http://www.axepeace.com/#about>. 10 Oct. 2014.

AXE Peace – Make Love, Not War

This ad is very powerful in the way that it draws upon our societal commonplaces about war and violence and draws upon the fear we have of those things before turning the tables. Each of the four scenarios starts out in a dire situation in a war torn setting. It appears as if violence and utter destruction are impending, until one lady stops in front of a tank, and proceeds to run up to it and embraces the man who was inside it. Firearms are tossed aside, a master-control panel for a bomb turns out to be for fireworks, a communist rally turns out to be a display of affection. It is a very surprising and unexpected turn for such a commercial to take. I think what’s even more surprising is the fact that it turns out to be an Axe commercial. In my opinion, I think that the product is overshadowed by the amazing message to “make love, not war,” but is still effective. As striking as the commercial itself is, the product at the end is shocking as well because it is highly unexpected for a product such as Axe to have such a profound and meaningful commercial.

Just do it – Chinese Sweatshop

This isn’t an advertisement as much as it is just a profound image. It’s actually just a cartoon, but it depicts a very young Chinese girl making Nike shoes with the heading “Just do it”. Sweatshops are an incredibly unfortunate commonplace in society and this picture highlights them. The girl is “just doing” her job because that’s what she has to do. Her entire family and maybe even her life depend on her “just doing” this job for the company that wants it’s (typically) wealthy consumers to “just do it” as well.

Modern Day Slavery – Not For Sale

This advertisement connects to Abraham Lincoln and the emancipation of slavery in the 1800’s. It draws upon the commonplace that everyone knows who Abe was and what he did, and represents this by putting a Lincoln beard on the people in it’s advertisements. It is a call to action for “modern day Abes” to help the fight against (illegal) modern-day slavery. The caption of the picture states that there are more slaves today than at any other time in history which is a horrifying problem that the non-profit organization Not For Sale is hoping to address.

America the Beautiful – Coca Cola

This commercial depicts multiracial children singing America the Beautiful in their native languages. It draws upon the ignorant commonplace that “here in America we speak English,” and also reminds viewers that this nation is and was meant to be a melting pot for many instead of dominated by a single race. I’m not actually 100% sure about the rhetoric behind this commercial, but I absolutely love it and just thought it fit right in with the theme of “profound advertising”.