Monthly Archives: October 2023

Throughout the 1900’s, the American value of college education steadily increased, as more students enrolled in universities each year. Wealth, happiness, success — Americans associated these values with college education more and more as time went on. Although trends predicted that American attitudes toward college education would only become more positive as time increased, recent years have shown the exact opposite: the number of Americans valuing college education has begun to decline. New polls have indicated tuition price, time, and available jobs as factors in American views on college. Many Americans believe the price of attending college outweighs the potential benefits, making it a risky investment (Salhotra).

During the early 2000s, the increased price of university tuition, along with the Great Recession, contributed to a slight decrease in college enrollment each year. Although this affected American attitudes toward college, the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 drastically affected American attitudes and college enrollment rates in the past several years. In fact, one poll found that the percentage of Americans who believe college has a positive influence on the country has decreased by 14 points since 2020 (Salhotra). The implications of COVID-19, including a fall in the American economy, online schooling, and a shift in working culture, have all contributed to the new views on college education.

In Linda Scott’s “Images in Advertising: The Need for a Theory of Visual Rhetoric,” I found it interesting — and a bit shocking — how many advertising angles one can take. Throughout the article, Scott includes a variety of advertising techniques, analyzing the representation, theories, and psychology behind each one.

Scott’s first point analyzes three different advertisements about lipstick. Although all of these advertisements promote the same product, each one presents a unique lens for its audience. For instance, the first image simply illustrates three bottles of lipstick with some textual context. Scott’s third advertisement presents two images of lipstick: one picture of the bottles lined up together and one of the lipstick boldly applied on a woman’s lips.

Scott’s “First Advertisement”

Scott’s “Third Advertisement”

Scott argues these advertisements follow slightly different theories about advertising, explaining how the first shows the lipstick simply as it is, while the third advertisement uses framing to draw in its audience. Although I understand Scott’s point, I also find the definition of “framing” somewhat confusing.

Scott uses the focus on the woman’s lips in the third advertisement to illustrate the concept of framing. I understand this point, but I also see framing in the first advertisement, just in a slightly different way. Although the first advertisement may initially seem straightforward and simple, the designers intentionally placed the lipstick bottles in such a way to form a triangular shape. In real life, it would be impossible for the two standing bottles of lipstick to defy the laws of gravity and stand in such a way. Furthermore, the advertisement actually removes the lipstick from its regular context to place it on an entirely white background, “framing” it in a way that it clearly pops out to the audience.

Based on this, I think the first advertisement does demonstrate some theories of visual rhetoric, and specifically that framing can be applied to nearly every situation. Although Scott argues that some advertisements are more simple than others, I see ways in which this first advertisement can be considered just as complex, if not more, than the third. Although it may not use representation in the same way, it still uses framing techniques to make the lipstick product pop out to the audience. In this way, the designers of the first and third advertisement most likely put the same amount of thought, intention, and analysis into their advertisements.

Sources

Amazon’s “Vote” T-Shirt

It is widely believed that humans can store seven items of information in the short-term memory at a time (Mcleod 2023). Considering the brain’s relatively small capacity to store and process information, it is crucial for companies and organizations to consider the constraints of advertisements and convey the most effective message. Apparel is one form of communication and advertising that companies, organizations, and civil rights movements alike have relied upon for years to spread messages and beliefs. One example from a modern mental health campaign includes popular clothing brand, H&M’s, “Positive State of Mind” sweatshirt. The vibrant pink sweatshirt exhibits a large smiley face and quote “Positive State of Mind” in bold, dark lettering. Although the designers intended to spread mental health awareness, the short message actually poses serious issues in regards to mental health awareness campaigns, as it oversimplifies mental health illnesses. The sweatshirt represents the difficulties in spreading awareness through apparel, as sweatshirts face time and attention constraints.

However, some designers have found ways to actually strengthen arguments through the simple nature of apparel, as seen through the “Vote” t-shirt commonly found on different clothing sites such as Amazon, Etsy, TeePublic, and more. The t-shirt reads one short word: “Vote,” each letter illustrated differently to represent important reasons to vote. The “V” resembles two books, the “O” is a fist, the “T” is represented by a uterus, and the “E” design includes pride colors. Each of these symbols represents some of the most controversial and important voting topics: education, race discrimination and inequalities, reproductive rights, and LGBTQ+ rights. Although the shirt seems fairly simple at first glance, further analysis reveals an entire argument backed with claim, evidence, and reasoning. The claim urges people to “Vote,” as seen through the commonplace of such a simple word and topic. The evidence relies upon illustrations, using visual rhetoric and more commonplaces to show the audience how much is at stake at the voting polls. Finally, the reasoning relies upon pathos as well as inductive and deductive reasoning to convince the audience why they should vote.

While the claim may seem relatively obvious at first, it is more complex than it may appear. First and foremost, the shirt argues people should vote, as clearly exhibited by the phrase “Vote.” However, upon further inspection, the shirt does more than just this; it relies on commonplaces to encourage people to vote for democratic candidates. Each letter of the shirt represents liberal ideals in some of the most controversial political debates. The books represent education, and the belief that books should not be banned for containing sensitive content, as many disturbing events throughout history are important to learn from. Many Americans would be familiar with the debate over banned books in education, and associate the visuals with this debate, given the context of voting. Furthermore, many Americans would again be familiar with the fist as seen in the letter “O,” and connect this to Black Lives Matter movements across the country. Similarly, they would connect the uterus to abortion debates, and the pride flag to LGBTQ+ rights. Someone who follows American news would associate democratic ideals to these visuals, seeing how they represent equality across all races, genders, and sexualities. However, if a person from a different culture or time period saw the t-shirt, the message may become rather meaningless, as they would not understand the deeper meaning of the shirt.

Works Cited

Mcleod, S. “Short-Term Memory: Facts, Types, Duration & Capacity.” Simply Psychology, 10

May 2023, www.simplypsychology.org/short-term-memory.html.