SWA #6

Dr. Pepper has been around since the 1880's and has been marketed as having a "one-of-a-kind taste."  While the soda may actually have a very unique taste, the marketing tactics have long been the same.  Dr. Pepper is able to recognize who it's audience is and make them feel as though they are one-of-a-kind just like the soda.  By examining the two Dr. Pepper ads we can see that they have been tailored to fit a target audience; this is significant because while the ads may be designed for a specific audience, they include similar overlying themes.

SWA #5

• This ad was first featured in Ladies Home Journal.
• The typical topic covered in this are any subject that involves women.  This includes interior design, food, beauty and fashion advice, and marriage advice.
• The demographics of its prospective audience is women that are old enough to have children and a family.
• There are many products advertised here and they encompass a wide variety of items.  Some are food products, some include feminine products, or they can be items for home decor.
• Based on these answers it is clear that the publisher is interested in talking about things that interest women.  They assume that women value family and home life.

• This advertisement was featured in Sports Illustrated.
• The typical topics that are covered are whatever is going on in the world of sports.  They try to cover the most important stories in professional or collegiate sports.
• The demographics of the audience is mostly men, but there are probably a few women readers.
• The other products advertised here include beer, cigarettes, razors and shaving cream, and other products men use regularly.
• They publisher assumes that because it is a magazine about sports it is mainly men reading, and they value products that deal with being a man.

SWA #4

1. I am analyzing two different Dr. Pepper ads.  The first one came from the internet and it appears to come out of a magazine from the 1950's or 1960's.  The second advertisement come from a common commercial that is on TV now and can be found in magazines like Sports Illustrated.

2. The audience of the first advertisement was clearly women because it focuses on how you can drink Dr. Pepper and still fit into your bathing suit.  This probably came from a magazine that writes about women's health or other interests women have.  The second advertisement come from television and magazines like Sports Illustrated.  The audience is men because it is mostly advertised on stations like ESPN, and its plain and simple.

3. Ad #1- This advertisement shows a woman standing in front of the mirror in her bathing suit.  The ad   goes on to talk about how women want to fit into last years bathing suit and how drinking Dr. Pepper will allow you to do so because it doesn't contain sugar.  It talks about how its enjoyable but the best part about it is that you will not gain weight after drinking it.

Ad #2- This advertisement is very plain and only feature a picture of Dr. Pepper in a can and in a glass on top of a grey background.  It contains the text "It's not for women."  At the top it talks about how it has the same taste as Dr. Pepper but only has 10 "manly" calories.  "Women"is in red font which makes it stand out more than the other words.  All the main text is in all caps.

4. I chose these two ads because they are trying to sell the same product, but are focusing on why its good for men or why its good for women, instead of trying to sell it to everyone.  They both advertise being healthier for you which I found interesting since one is trying to sell to women and the other to men.  What makes them strikingly different is how complex the first ad is and how simple the second ad is.  They both have the idea that people want a good tasting healthy drink, but they use different methods.  The first ad uses the stereotype that all women worry about is fitting into their bikinis.  It emphasizes that this drinking will enable them to do that.  The second shows that men too want to be healthy about what they drink, but that men are tougher so they don't want a "womanly" drink with no calories.  It also uses the stereotype that men are simple and women are complex so the second advertisement gets right to the point, but the first has a whole paragraph and picture explaining the reasons to drink Dr. Pepper.

SWA #3

The issue that I decided to focus on from the Carolina Reader was the environment.  This article focuses on the manmade wasteland created in countries such a Russia and China.  It talks about how a once luscious landscape had now become uninhabitable desert.  The main argument it makes is that we are not unaware of what is going on, but rather don’t really care what is going on.  We know we are the causes of problems such as deforestation, wetland destruction, and greenhouse gas emissions, but instead of trying to fix them we have turned a blind eye to these issues.  Our recklessness has set up a problem that the future generations will be required to deal with.

            By pointing out this issue and citing examples of where irreversible damage has already occurred the author is calling for a change.  At no point in the article does the author come out and directly say, “this must change,” but by giving examples of issues where there have been a change of practice such a water boarding and slavery, he is calling for a change of practice in how we deal with the environment.

            The image I decided to focus on can be found on page 27 of the Writing Arguments book, and it is figure 2.1.  This picture focuses on a man standing outside of a Home Depot store holding an American flag and a sign that says, “It’s illegal to hire illegal’s.”  The man is protesting the practice of contractors and businessmen hiring illegal immigrants to do work for them at a price that is below minimum wage.  This man is protesting the act of illegal immigration and giving jobs that could be given to hard working Americans to workers that will do it for illegally low wages.

            By holding the American flag and the sign about the illegal immigrants this man is saying it is un-American to hire illegal immigrants.  He is making the argument that American worker should be hired to do jobs in America and should be given fair wages.  This sign bring attention to issue that might be commonplace at this location and serves as a reminder that it is an illegal practice.  It is estimated that there are around 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States.  These people do not pay taxes that the US citizens pay and take jobs for less than minimum wage.  The man in the image is protesting that we keep these people from taking American citizens jobs.

I found the "Get Smarter" article by Jamais Cascio to be a lot more interesting than the article by Nicholas Carr about Google.  My reasoning for this is that I got the feeling that Nicholas Carr was no more than an aging old man, that was having trouble adapting to modern technology.  I found Cascio more relatable, because he can accept that Google is changing the way we think, but these types of evolutionary changes have been occurring for years within the human population.  He says, "Google isn't the problems; it's the beginning of a solution." I completely agree with that statement, and maybe that why I found this article a lot more interesting to read.