The artifact I will be using to explain rhetorical situation is an Old Spice advertisement (pictured below). This advertisement is able to persuade its audience namely by sticking out from other advertisements. Old Spice in particular has done a consistently good job with this strategy, seeing as most people think of their brand when picturing crazy ads or over-the-top imagery.
The commonplace that we can see in this ad is the idea of being “manly”. The ad portrays this thought in two ways, the first being in the image. The ad depicts a young, “nerdy” looking man peeling away to reveal a rockstar with a tan, toned, muscular body with a double neck guitar (this goes back to the over-the-top imagery discussed earlier). Immediately, we are able to see that the rocker is more “manly” than the other man depicted, who looks boy-ish in comparison. The other way they depict this commonplace is in the text, where it says, “There’s a man in there” which is encouraging consumers to become a “real man” buy buying their product.
These commonplaces are how the advertisement creates a rhetorical situation. Through strategic word usage combined with eye-catching imagery, Old Spice is able to make many consumers feel that they absolutely have to buy their product in order to be manly. There is also the text at the very bottom of the ad, which says “smell better than yourself”. This text lends aid to establishing this rhetorical situation by compounding on the already established idea that Old Spice is the only way to become a man. It also setting up a target audience, which is another key component of creating a rhetorical situation. The ad is targeted toward people who might feel insecure about the way the come off to other people and is suggesting that by using their deodorant they will become better and not have to worry those things anymore.
I found this ad to be a perfect example (even though it does not really have to do with sustainability) because it is able to set a commonplace, target a specific audience, and establish a rhetorical example with one image combined with only thirteen words
This is a great analysis of the civic artifact! The text flows nicely from how the ad depicts its idea of “manliness” to how that relates to the audience. Great job, keep it up!
I think you did a great job of discussing and identifying the commonplace of masculinity and manliness in the ad. However, instead of first saying you are going to discuss the Old Spice ad, I think it would be smoother to dive directly into your analysis. I liked the use of other media as well.
I think you have an extremely thorough and descriptive analysis of this commonplace. I like how you specified how the stark imagery paired with the word choice used effects the audience overall.