Hello State Patty's Day!

State Patty's Day

As most Penn State students know, this weekend is State Patty’s Day, an unofficial holiday celebrated by not only Penn State students, but students from all over the region. Over the past week, I’ve received many emails from club leaders and dorm supervisors, as well as warnings from teachers, to be very careful this weekend. Not being from Pennsylvania or the surrounding area, I never even hear of this holiday until I came to Penn State. I heard that there were many extreme measures going to be taken this weekend, and when I looked at the front page of The Daily Collegian this morning, the first article I read about was State’s Patty Day. The article is posted below:

http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2011/02/24/State_Pattys_apartment_patrol.aspx

The article above indicates some of the measures that police officers in State College will be taking to promote good behavior during the student created holiday that will take place this Saturday. This includes having police officers and undercover cops monitoring apartment hallways looking for underage drinkers and those committing disorderly conduct.

The target audience for this newspaper article is the student population at Penn State. Not only does the article report actual facts about what police will be doing this weekend to control State Patty’s Day, the article seems to serve another function: warn Penn State students. Many students are terrified of getting underages and disorderly conduct marks on their records. Not only are they in trouble at the time of their charge, but the offense is placed on their record. That doesn’t sound too hot and many students are afraid of these charges. I’ve overheard many students say they’re not even leaving their rooms and apartments for this reason alone. State college police play into the pathos of the students by increasing the amount of police presence to attempt to scare them from unwanted partying this weekend.

Also, this article evokes many emotions from its readers. While some students agree with the police, many are outraged in what they feel in an invasion of privacy. Regardless of what emotions readers have, this article serves as an information source to stay safe this State Patty’s Day weekend.

THON

It's THON weekend!

There is nowhere on the Penn State campus this week that you could go where everyone wasn’t talking about THON. Many students spend most of the year preparing and fundraising for the Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon to combat childhood cancer. Like football, THON is a way of life at PSU.





The video above is a preview of THON and what this event is all about.  The video itself is a culmination of video, text, and music to promote THON. Since this is THON weekend, videos like the one above have flooded Facebook newsfeeds and it’s all that anyone is talking about.

Although the video shows what THON is, the video actually seems to be a brilliant marketing technique to gain supporters to donate to this charity. Every aspect of this video plays on pathos of the viewing audience. Even though THON is student run, the video is not just targeted towards the college students on campus, but rather to every single person who cares about children and fighting cancer.

 For instance, the text present in the video states how and why we THON. By using inspiring words such as “hope,” “strength,” and “love,” the prime motivations of THON are conveyed. Also, the video shows the BJC with all the students dancing and supporting the children in unity which conveys the message that together we can help fight childhood cancer. The children with cancer are also shown dancing and smiling which reminds the audience who they are donating money for and who they are supporting. The video pulls on the heart strings of the viewers and plays into their emotions. The chosen music also plays a large role in the message that this video conveys. The song relates to childhood cancer because it sings about seeing the enemy and keeping hope because the fight isn’t over yet. It is about miracles and THON is an effort to make miracles happen. The video is truly inspiring.

I never stopped to think that promotional THON videos contained so much rhetoric, but by playing on the pathos of those involved, this video strongly convinces its viewers to support and even donate to THON.

Happy THON weekend! FTK ❖

The Other Type of Abuse

Recently, I’ve been looking through a lot of different ads. Many of the ads were interesting, bright, thought provoking, and some were even downright strange. However, this print advertisement below from Association of Women for Action and Research really caught my attention.

Today, more people pay attention to domestic violence than ever before. This issue is no longer considered to be out of sight out of mind. This ad, however, takes another perspective on the role of domestic violence in everyday life that goes beyond the common perception of what violence is.

When thinking of domestic violence, an image of a husband beating his wife or a woman with bruises on her body usually comes to mind. However, domestic violence, according to this ad, is more than just physical abuse. It’s verbal as well.

For one, the ad is strictly black and white. This indicates that there is no gray area in abuse. Verbal abuse is still abuse and is not less threatening than physical harm. This image also indicates that verbal abuse is just as horrendous as physical abuse by using a man’s fist pulling a woman’s hair to represent spoken words. His clenched fist juts out of his mouth which represents the words he is speaking to her. The woman’s face screams pain and suffering from the man pulling her hair which plays on pathos of the audience. The audience can actually see the pain that the woman is in from the words the angry man is directing towards her.

This advertisement seems to be directed towards a female audience, especially those who are in an abusive relationship. It seems as though many women don’t recognize abuse unless it is physical, and this ad tells otherwise. I believe that it is also directed towards women who are being verbally abused because there is a hotline for women to call if they are in this type of situation. In addition to providing a hotline number, the advertisement also is sponsored by Association of Women for Action and Research, which adds to the ethos of this domestic violence awareness ad.

image from: http://www.adsneeze.com/social/domestic-violence-ads

Teenage Girls

Are all teenage girls the same? Are they bad drivers, highly emotional and rash decision makers?  The following Allstate Ad appears to be making this point.



The Allstate commercial above uses comedy and common stereotypes of teenage girls to market their insurance agency. For instance, in place of a teenage girl, there is a man who is referred to as “Mayhem” in her place.  As he is personified as “Becky” the teenage girl, not only does he use his cell phone while driving and speak in common teenage lingo, but “Mayhem” seems to be over emotional about a boy. It is also depicted that “Becky” is not able to drive, which is obviously indicated by her crashing into another woman’s car saying “Oopsies!” and driving away.  This accident doesn’t seem to faze her, which implies that she doesn’t care about the damage she’s caused. This implies that her own emotions and problems override her ability to think, and drive, clearly.

Also, in this commercial, the rhetorical situation is that the increasing amount of teenagers using technology while driving has increased and has caused more accidents. Although this ad just seems to be poking fun at the common stereotypes that teenage girls receive, it also implies that even though teenagers can’t be kept off the road, everyone else can protect themselves from them. When “Becky” hit another car, she was focused of her phone, not the road. Because of this, an innocent woman’s car was destroyed. For this reason, the ad is directed at all adults who are concerned about the driving capabilities of young teenagers. The ad makes it seem as though it is probable that any young girl would be on her phone while driving and that no one would be safe from her behavior. Adults then might infer that teenagers are dangerous drivers and that they should have better insurance on their cars because a teenage will probably hit their car eventually.

This commercial was also aired at a time when texting and driving was a big deal. In fact, whenever a person was doing anything on their phone while driving they were negatively looked at. In Chicago, for instance, it was made a law that no one could talk on the phone legally within legal limits. Also, there was a lot of research going on at this time about the negative effects of texting while driving. Allstate utilized the kairotic situation of this time and used a teenager texting while driving to promote their insurance company.

I Believe in the Power of Family

http://www.zshare.net/audio/86046023815d16df/