possible topics

• vegetarianism 

• alternative energy

• political viewpoints

• world hunger

• homelessness

• social status

Texting & Driving: It Can Wait

In this public service video, stories about three teenagers' tragedies were brought to attention. This Video was made by AT&T to bring awareness to the harmful and sometimes deadly effects of texting while driving. In this day and age, cell phones are used by almost every one. There have been far too many deaths caused by a simple text message while driving, and AT&T has brought this to attention to the public that this cannot go on. The company AT&T uses emotional, ethical and logical appeals in this video to help raise awareness of this easily harmful action. With immense uses of emotional appeal, this video has tugged on the heartstrings of viewers. The fact that this video in itself is about cases of death brings many to an extremely emotional state. Ethical appeals are brought in by the interviews that they had with friends and family of the lost loved ones. Credibility and important information was given about these young people who died, creating an even more effective appeal to the audience. There are logical appeals in this public service video that were able to create a powerful message to the views; Don't text and drive. With these factual cases of paralyzation and even death, the target to get people to stop texting while driving has skyrocketed. Ads with just a message on a screen can be informative and meaningful, but not nearly as would true horror stories of this dangerous act be. There is absolutely no logic to texting and driving, and that is brought to realization with the outcomes in this video. Thanks to AT&T, this message should tell everyone to put away their phones, and focus on staying safe.

Analyzing Arguments summary

This passage explains that not only are there arguments in everyday life when you may least suspect, but it goes into depth about the meaning behind these arguments. It is explained that the decisions we make daily happen to just as well be arguments, such as choosing an outfit to wear or changing an email to sound more professional. In page 279, it goes on to say "as an author, you should always think hard about where you are coming from in the arguments you make". Just this sentence is very important in the passage and explains the importance of explaining your reasoning behind the statements you make.

Ad Analysis

Laura Combs

English 101

Begert

Nov. 5th, 2015

Ad Analysis

For this paper, I chose to do an analysis on the objectification of women in ads for alcohol. Alcohol has been popular for a long time and has been many people's go-to drink after a long day at work, at a party, or even along with a meal. Specifically, men are known to drink more alcohol than women. According to the National Institute for Alcohol Abuse in 2013, a reported 16.6 million Americans 18 and older have an AUD, (alcohol use disorder.) and 10.8 of those million are Men. This is just a statistic of alcohol abuse, not counting the number of deaths from alcohol of that year. With these studies in mind, some companies selling alcohol have geared their audience toward men, and in the process...have objectified women.  

In these advertisements, you’ll see that they all have a female in them. Two of them, you can’t even see their eyes, but their bodies are what is targeted for these ads. Not only are their bodies being shown off with minimal clothing, but they don’t look happy. These women have little to no expression, being another aspect to seeing these people as objects, not people.

In relation to alcohol, One of these ads shows an overjoyed man wrapped around two ladies’ legs with a drink in each hand. The ladies’ faces aren't even shown, suggesting that they don’t matter. This ad is trying to showcase that with this product, you can get any girl you want. And in this case, girls plural.

With this happy expression on the man’s face, this will apparently get men to buy their product, not even thinking twice about the misogynistic, inappropriate aspect in the first place.

In the second ad, there are two women on either side of a vodka bottle, only focusing on their mouths. Again, there are not one but two women in this advertisement, suggesting that they come a dime a dozen to men. These women are expressionless and look like mannequins, possibly suggesting that with this bottle of vodka, you will receive the “perfect” woman you deserve. With the infamous cherry red lips and flawless complexion, this product is bringing more attention to the ironic statement at the bottom to “Go Natural.”

In the third ad, there are not one, not two, but three women posing for a budweiser advertisement. They are all laying down on a towel appearing to be living perfect and relaxed lives. Although somewhat dated, this picture still speaks a thousand words. These women are the same size, same skin color, and nearly same hair color and texture. This Budweiser ad from the 80’s was released in the summertime, appealing to the satisfaction of an ice cold beer on a hot summer day. And in this satisfaction comes every man’s dream; the perfect woman! With no question, this picture has been photoshopped, showing no flaws. These women have been sexualized to be more appealing to the buyers of this product, including the idea that if women get this product, they may look the same as the women in this picture!

All of these advertisements relate in the visual and verbal content of objectifying women for alcohol. With the fact of alcoholic beverages being loved around the world, companies have used this to their advantage to get men, specifically to buy their products.

Think about your writing

Recently, I have done a lot of writing. One piece that I am proud of is my Essay on "The objectification of women in Alcohol ads", which was about the analyzing three ads and publishing your own thoughts. 

In the generation we are in, people are taking a stand to subjects that haven't been talked about before. Gun control, LGBTQ+, environmental changes. These and more have been brought up in the past decade and really gotten people's attention. With these in mind, I decided to write about the social issue of objectification of women, specifically in alcohol advertisements. I believe I took a stand in this essay, I put my point across, and I made an impact on whoever may read this. The first step to solving a problem is realization of the problem, and with this subject matter, hopefully in years to come, it will be a thing of the past to objectify women, men, or anything of that matter. In this essay I believe I brought to attention that we are not objects, but human beings.  

Yes We Can

In this video, "Yes We Can", it consists of artists, actors, singers, and the president of the United States showing the power of us as a nation. The message in this video is to reinforce positivity and the ability to do anything you set your mind to. With the help of visual aspects such as words on the screen and people of different race and gender, it brings the whole message together that We Can. The argument focused on this video is Barack Obamas running for president, and that with him as the leader of our nation, we can do anything as long as we do it together. As a nation, as a group, and as human beings; Yes We Can.

Positio Papers

Things I've taken a position on in the past few days

• Whether to eat a healthy breakfast or a yummy breakfast
• Going early to class or sleeping in
• Whether to curl or straighten my hair
• Presidential election
• Environmentally concious decisions