FOA #1 -Advertising Reflection

Maile Danilchik

10/16/17

IB Language and Literature

Reflective Statement for Advertising

Advertising is type of propaganda using text, images, and sound to affect an audience's response, thoughts, or actions and is to convince the viewer or listener to buy a product. We come across advertisements daily and even though we may not purchase a product, advertising has a subconscious effect on people. In order to dissect the elements of advertising and commercials, fellow students and I have collaborated on a film and print advertisement for a multipurpose camping called the “WonderBaton”. Our goal was to cultivate our audience’s interest about our product using the commercial and handout as our communication medium.

The message of our advertisement was that the “WonderBaton” is an innovative tool that replaces a bag of camping gear. We developed an Australian survivalist named Gare Bills to narrate and provide a personal testimony. Our target audience were outdoorsmen who wanted to be safe while in the wilderness. Our film only features Bills for the sake of simplicity, so it could be seen as marginalizing whoever was not the same demographic as him. Our advertisement shows the relevance of nature within the region we live in since the Pacific Northwest is generally acknowledged for its diverse ecosystems that many hikers and outdoorsmen like to explore.

Our brand name was created to invoke the feeling of wonderment from using such a versatile tool while “baton” was derived from the fact we used a relay race baton while filming. Our slogan, “Because we all deserve the chance to camp safely”, brought elements of pathos into our product promotion to invoke the feeling of security we desired to associate with our product. Rhetoric such as “highly recommend” used was to emphasize Bills’ endorsement of the product and the company mission. The use of the rhetorical triangle shows that linguistics play a huge role in the sharing of ideas and persuasion.

We utilized film and print since we thought that an audience would engage more with a cinematographic piece rather than another form. It would ideally be aired on shows pertaining to the outdoors such as National Geographic or other channels; our printed advertisement would feature in a magazine like the American Outdoors Magazine. For a soundtrack we chose “Wanted Dead or Alive” by Bon Jovi as it is an iconic song that has adding a rugged feel. I think our advertisement was effective in promoting our product with these elements subconsciously affecting the viewer.

I think the most effective appeals within our pieces was the use of ethos and pathos from the rhetorical triangle. With Bills’ testimony and emotive language, we were able to create a piece that drew the viewer in with both the print and film advertisement. Potential consumers of this product may want to be like Bills with his preparedness or they wished to relate to his persona through the acquisition of this product. The cinematographic qualities of the film as well as the soundtrack were beneficial to creating the type of feeling we wanted within the advertisement.

Word count: 500