Class Canceled - But Wait, There's More

Fellow Writers,

I have to cancel class today, unfortunately. We will discuss the Coates and McIntosh articles on Friday and I will post a revision to the schedule then.

I do want you to benefit from today in terms of writing and starting to think about your upcoming analysis of an advertisement, so here is a practice run. Please bring your print-out or hand-written copy of your answers to this assignment to class on Friday - this will count towards participation grade #2.

First, watch this Super Bowl Hyundai Ad: Here. Then pull out a pen and paper or a computer to take notes for each of the six questions below. Watch it again. Let it loop if that helps.

Second, do a rhetorical analysis of this advertisement. Read your notes, maybe let the ad loop some more if you want. Write one or more (complete, grammatical) sentences in response to each of these questions:
1. Who is the author of this piece/the creator of the message? Do a Google: who is responsible for this particular ad campaign for Hyundai?
2. Who do you think is the intended audience? Do not simply say "people watching the Super Bowl" or "black people" - there is more going on here. Which kind of people is the advertisement targeting and why, in your opinion?
3. What is the message this advertisement conveys, beyond simply "buy Hyundai"? Why do they want you to buy Hyundai? Also: What does this message say about black fatherhood, masculinity, sexuality, etc.? Think about how race intersects with other cultural lenses.
4. Make some claims about design choices: what decisions did the creators make about what you see, what you hear, what you read, what kind of text, etc.? Why do you think they made those choices specifically?
5. Make some claims about design strategies: What kind of impact does the advertisement have in terms of ethos (authority - techniques to make us feel the ad comes from a trustworthy source of information, the sense that the ad is 'legit'), pathos (emotion - techniques to make us feel good or bad in order to convince us to accept their message), and logos (argument - techniques to appeal to our sense of reason and logic to convince us to accept their message)?  Why did the advertisers use those appeals to convince us to buy Hyundai?
6. What constraints or limitations affected their decision making process? Why could they not make certain choices, include different strategies? These can be any number of things: time, resources, what year it is, what politics are in place, all sorts of contextual issues, etc.