Movie Posters

This week I'm going to talk about the rhetoric of a couple of movie posters, because I'm in a movie mood right now.

The first one is the poster for Jackass: The Movie, since I'm also in a Jackass mood!

First of all, what a fun picture!  A bunch of guys crammed into an over-sized shopping cart racing down a hill being followed by a huge explosion.  This poster is basically promising fans that the movie will be a bigger, better version of the television show.  The shopping cart does this because anyone who watched the show knows they often ride around in them.  In the poster, they are literally in a bigger and better shopping cart than a real one.  Next, the explosion is huge, and bigger than anything they would have been able to do with the show, so once again, they are making promises of new and more exciting stunts.  It also has the recognizable "jackass" in all white written at the bottom, but written in red over top it says "with stuff you'd never see on t.v." once again convincing the fans that if you like the television show, you'll love the movie.  I think this was important for the movie because I'm sure there were doubt that the show wouldn't work out in a movie format because it's comprised of short clips, which you may not expect to work for 90 minutes or so.  Overall, I think this poster does a great job in what it wants to express about the movie; it is just like the show, but with more exciting and crazy stunts, which is just what fans would want to see.

Poster #2: Valentine's Day

I haven't seen this movie, because I'm not particularly a fan of romantic comedies, but that's beside the point.  The main focus of this movie poster is the celebrities.  You look at it and see a heart filled with faces, so immediately the target audience (mainly women) is drawn in.  Upon further inspection, we see the words "From the director of Pretty Woman comes a day in the life of love."  The entire poster is focused on boosting the recognizable names.  Pretty Woman is an extremely well known romantic movie, so the poster tries to promise that this movie will be just as good as that one because it's the same director!  Then you look closer at the faces in the heart and realize that they are all extremely well-known and young faces in Hollywood.  You would be hard pressed to find someone that would not recognize at least one face in that group.  By doing this the poster is basically saying "Look at all the famous people we got to be in our movie, it MUST be good!"  All you really know about the movie is that it is about love, and it has a whole bunch of famous actors and actresses, but I think it works to get the target audience interested in the movie.

These movie posters are extremely different from one another, but both work for their different purposes.  The Jackass poster promises its fans that there will be more action than there was in the t.v. show, and therefore way more fun.  The Valentine's Day poster was released on Valentine's day, so many people were already looking for a romantic movie, and this poster claims to be the best by promoting all of the famous stars that it has. 

Ikea "Save The Lamp" Ad

So while perusing the internet for this week's ad to analyze, I came upon this gem from Ikea:

This is quite possibly my new favorite commercial ever... Well, probably second after the Darth Vader commercial.  Anyway, this commercial first manipulates our emotions by personifying the lamp then bringing us back to reality with humor.

The majority of the commercial is spent making the viewer connect to this old lamp.  We first see this lamp carried out of a house and put next to the trash.  The shot is very dark, it's windy out, and there's slow, sad music playing.  The commercial uses commonplaces such as windy, rainy nights to draw on our emotions.  We've all seen a movie scene where a character is left by themselves in the rain and forced to fend for themselves.  They also had the woman literally put the lamp out in the trash, which we easily equate to being rejected or broken up with by a partner.  They even show the woman in her house enjoying herself with her new lamp while the old one sits in the rain.  We relate these images and situations to being sad, but only because we connect them to our emotions and interactions with other people.  We imagine ourselves being thrown away, and left for another, better version of ourselves.  Because of this, we attach our own emotions to this lamp, and feel bad for it

Then a man walks into the shot, and suddenly the music stops.  Then he says "Many of you feel bad for this lamp.  That is because you're crazy!  It has no feelings, and the new one is much better."  Then the commercial ends with Ikea's logo and "unboring" written underneath it.  The first time I watched this I was shocked.  That was the last thing I expected to happen, and it really caught my attention, I had to watch the end again, and that is exactly what Ikea was going for.  In a couple of seconds they bring us back to reality and remind us that no matter how many personal emotions you attach to a lamp, or any other inanimate object for that matter, it is still simply an object.  It doesn't have feelings, and leaving it out in the rain because you got a new one will not make it sad.  This attempts to persuade us to go out and buy Ikea's new "unboring" items, because they're much better, and getting rid of your old things won't hurt anyone.

I think this commercial is extremely effective rhetorically because not only does it involve comedy to make its point, but there is a strong logos appeal in the fact that no matter how you perceive a lamp, it's still just a lamp.

Darth Vader Volkswagen Commercial

So a little bit before the Superbowl this year I discovered the best commercial I've ever seen.  Just watch it and I'm sure you'll understand why:

I think it works so well because aside from being completely adorable, the storyline of the commercial is very familiar to the general audience.  First of all they used the image of Darth Vader, one of the most iconic characters of pop culture.  Even people who haven't seen Star Wars are likely to recognize this symbol as the dominating leader of "the dark side."  In the movies he is played by David Prowse, a body builder who towers over the other characters in the movie.  In the commercial they do just the opposite and have a little boy in the costume.  This is surprising, and catches your attention.  It's entertaining to watch this little boy parade around attempting to be a character that is by nature very large and dominating.

Little kids always have that one character that they always dressed up as and wanted to be like, whether it was Darth Vader, Superman, Cinderella, Tinkerbell, so this is very easy to relate to.  It brings back fond memories of your childhood, or of watching your kids grow up.  By reminding you of these good times you are likely to associate the car with the good emotions you are feeling.

The last really important part is that the commercial basically says that if you buy this car, you can achieve your goals.  Throughout the majority of the ad, the boy is running around his house trying to "use the force," but continuously fails.  When his dad drives home, it looks like he is going to make one last attempt at the force, and it works! (or so he thinks)  Either way, he finally achieved his goal, and it makes it seem like it will help you achieve your goals also.  It also shows that both the parents and the kid are happy at the end, also reminding you that if you buy this car, you'll be happy!

Overall I think this commercial is great.  I mostly love it just because it's one of the cutest things I've ever seen, and that little boy is an amazing actor even without seeing his face.  But then after looking deeper into it, it's obvious that there's a lot more going on to remind you of success and happiness.

The Dark Knight Trailer

I'm assuming that almost everyone has either seen or at least heard about The Dark Knight, released in 2008 featuring Christian Bale, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Aaron Eckhart, Gary Oldman, and Heath Ledger.  Aside from being highly anticipated and therefore heavily promoted, the movie drew in even more attention after the death of Heath Ledger following the completion of the movie.  He died from a drug overdose, and many people believe his death was at least partially related to his work on the movie.

There had been a large marketing campaign for the movie, and after Ledger's death they changed the marketing to focus very heavily on the Joker character.  This trailer is a very good example of how much stress was put on this character:

For the first half of the video, the entire focus is on the Joker.  Aside from the company logos, the first thing we encounter is a voice over of the Joker's very distinct voice.  Although other images are shown, the focus is really on the voice over.  I thought it was especially interesting that he says "You've changed things, there's no going back."  This seems like it could be drawing a parallel to the fact that Ledger had passed away, and there is clearly no going back from that.  Then, although there is a quick flash of the character about 30 seconds in, it's a long shot and you can't make out much.  You don't actually see the Joker up close until almost a minute into the trailer when there is a close shot of the character, and then his infamous line "Why so serious?"  By not showing him until that point and not really showing much of the movie at all until then, it builds up the suspense and really draws your attention to this character and the fact that without him, there really is no movie.

If you knew nothing about Batman and only saw this trailer, you would surely think that the main character is the Joker, and this was definitely done on purpose.  Since people were so shocked by Ledger's death, the intrigue of the movie was even higher, and highlighting his performance would make them even more inclined to see it.  I think they could have also used this as an almost exploitative way to get people to see the movie, almost like saying "Hey, look at this guy!  He died, it would be wrong not to see his last movie."  By showing him so much it is impossible to ignore the fact that he's a big part of the movie.  The emphasis on the character was undoubtedly a good way to promote the movie through sympathy, intrigue, and sheer fascination with the character.

Ozzy vs. Bieber Ad

So last weekend was the infamous day of commercials, Superbowl Sunday!  There are so many people who look forward to the commercials more than the actual game, so I can't imagine the amount of money that companies spend not only buying that chunk of time, but also on creating the commercials themselves.  Because of this, it's safe to assume that these commercials are the best that they can come up with, so it seems weird when a commercial is less than impressive, but this week I'm going to talk about one that I found hilarious.  The Best Buy commercial with Justin Bieber and Ozzy Osbourne.

 

The ad is for Best Buy's buyback program in which they buy old or outdated electronics.  Firstly, the ad makes a statement about how quickly technology goes out of date nowadays.  They're not even able to finish filming the commercial before a new phone is released.  Although it's an exaggeration, it is very true that there is new technology being released almost nonstop.  To play on this idea, the commercial starts out with Ozzy Osbourne starring in the commercial.  He was very famous about thirty years ago, but now he's in his sixties.  It's made very clear in the ad that he can't keep up with the new technology, so they bring a new star, Justin Bieber to replace him just as they were replacing the phone with a new version.  

I realized also that the stereotype of men being incompetent was used.  We discussed in class how decades ago women were portrayed as helpless, but after women's rights movements, that changed.  In this ad, Ozzy's wife has to come in and try to help him with his lines.  Not only does this play on the useless man stereotype, but also that the older generation in general is having trouble keeping up with new technology, which I'm sure we've all seen with either our grandparents or parents. 

I think it was very smart rhetorically to include both Ozzy Osbourne and Justin Bieber in the commercial.  By using huge stars from two different generations, it makes it easy for practically everyone watching to be able to connect.  Also by choosing Ozzy, someone who has maintained at least some of his fame through the years, and Bieber who is a huge phenomenon right now, they increase the likelihood of people recognizing both stars. 

Dove Beauty Ad

So I found this ad from Dove for a beauty workshop for girls, and I found it extremely compelling.

First of all, let's consider the exigence.  Why is this commercial and workshop even necessary in the first place?  Our society has been changing the perception of beauty for years now to something that isn't a reasonable goal for any woman.  Models are extremely skinny, women in ads have flawless skin and look perfect in every way imaginable.  Because of this, women often feel they need to reach these standards to be beautiful.  This commercial was made to counter this.  It shows the exact process that companies can use to alter an already beautiful woman to a completely unreachable goal through computer manipulation.  I think it is really wonderful for a big company to finally make a stand and try to teach girls and women that the media portrayals of women are unrealistic.
The commercial is also put together very well.  The woman starts out without any makeup, and it first shows how much of a difference makeup and hair can make.  Personally, I think she looks perfectly fine like that, but the company continues to alter her look on the computer.  At this point, the audience can see how much she was actually changed and manipulated to make her look like she does on the billboard.  It actually exposes how much work it takes to make a woman look like that, and how much isn't even physically possible in real life. 
Overall, I think this is a great commercial rhetorically.  It effectively shows how altered our perception of real beauty is by showing an actual transformation of one woman.  They acknowledged the need of young girls to have a realistic role model, and have started this program to do so.  Often times it's easy to forget that celebrities and models don't always look like they do in the pictures, and this commercial really brings things into perspective.

This I Believe Podcast

http://www.zshare.net/audio/860502003f2e6c84/