Hitler, Master of Rhetoric

I enjoyed the presentation about Hitlers speech. After reading several books involving coercion, neuro linguistic programming, and body language, I remember Hitler being mentioned many times using of these persuasive tactics. Hitler didn't use overly complex and flowery messages, he kept his messages very simple and focused. Instead of mentioning multiple issues he focused on a select few topics for his entire speech. He used a great deal of repitition, persistently covering these points over and over. Instead of addressing multiple facets and sides of an issue he chose to take a very black and white approach in order to promote zealotry. He also heavily emphasized body language, spending hours practicing hand gestures for his speeches. This is the first class I've been in that analyzed Hitlers speaking techniques, which is odd considering him being one of the most infamous villianous world leaders of all time. One would think that his propaganda techniques would be heavily emphasized in high school and college world history classes. Those who cannot learn from history...

Time Constraint Limited Depth of Publishing Presentation

I never had a desire to write my own book before so the thought of hearing from a publisher never really piqued my interest. He arrived fairly late so by the time we started getting into the in depth details about his profession it was already time to move onto the writing exercise. As I remember we had roughly 20 minutes to write and review our pieces. After about 10 minutes we started reviewing and he touched on a few pieces lightly and the time quickly ran out. The fact that we didn't have time to really analyze the writing exercises limited the active participation aspect that was intended for the exercise. I wasn't that interested in being a spot news writer for the local news industry either, but the KOIN speaker was very interesting, maybe due to the fact that she worked in an industry basking in the lime light. I'm sure publishing can be equally fascinating and relevant to an average college student but I didn't feel very engaged in this particular presentation.

Advertising Mirrors and Molds

In Douglas Rushkoff's book "Coercion" he dedicates a chapter solely to advertising. He mentions how branding began in the very literal sense of branding cattle. Branding cattle provided means of tracing cattle back to the owner of the cattle. Manufacturers then adopted the practice for similar reasons, being able to identify the original source and additionally enabling customers to gauge quality and establish loyalty if satisfied. Much has changed since then and advertising has incorporated many psychological ploys to allure often unsuspecting customers into irrationally purchasing mediocre or even subpar products.

One ad campaign that fascinated me was Mike's Hard Lemonade advertisements. Sweet fruity drinks have always been considered "girly" drinks. Mikes Hard Lemonade ads attempted to buck the trend and directly target the male market. The particular commercial I remember involved a lumberjack accidentally chopping his leg off and non-chalantly responding to the event while drinking a Mike's Hard Lemonade. The trend associating sweet drinks with feminine tastes was deeply in bedded so they threw all the testosterone they could into the campaign by using burly men performing blue collar work. Being an ex-bartender, none of my patrons or friends seems to have bought into it and Mikes Hard Lemonades are still considered girly drinks, but it's interesting nonetheless to see advertisers trying such a daunting attempt to aggressively mold public perception.

Advertising is obsessed in discovering, replicating, and ideally creating a trend. It's heavily colored in fashion and entertainment making it an edgy branch of business as opposed to other more traditional fields such as accounting, finance, and management. In a steadily growing consumerist society advertising has become not only a mirror but a window into the human psyche.

What I Gained From This Class

I have always dreaded English classes for their lengthy page requirements covering boring generic topics. It was a great relief that this class transcended that trend. The writing style centered on being concise and to the point avoiding any extraneous filler. Being a Business major this writing style will be a necessity in effective communications in the workplace.

My favorite aspect of the class was the presentations by real professionals from Koin News and the lighting business copywriter. The copywriter’s presentation has inspired me to consider marketing/advertising as a possible major. The practice writing exercise incorporated during her lecture was a wonderful hands-on experience, transcending the standard passive involvement typical of most lectures. The Koin lecture was also very interesting. I felt considerably less competent writing the crime spot exercise but I feel it was a good glimpse into the field for others who might possess better skills in this particular niche.

I also value the fact that our professor has considerable real world experience in business versus a purely academic professor. All of the lectures had a clear direction that focused solely on relevant writing skills vital to my success in the business workplace.

Copywriting Lighting Sounds Exciting

Copywriting sounds like a very interesting career field. If you were able to work for any company, which one would you choose? What business market would be the most challenging to copywrite for? What specific college classes are most critical in developing copywriting skills? With virtually all consumer products containing Spanish writing, do you predict Spanish becoming a preffered job skill for future copywriting jobs?

Media Kit for ESPN

http://www.espncms.com/index2.aspx?id=287

Toyota is Fatally Reliable

Toyota has been gaining infamy lately with their sticking accelerator that has resulted in 19 fatalities in the past decade. The main defect has been with a down curved accelerator which allows the floor mat to be pushed on top of the accelerator locking the pedal in the downward position. This defect has resulted in over 3.8 million recalls. Another defect has arisen with the new 2010 Prius, it's braking software has a glitch preventing its brakes from engaging immediately. This additional defect will result in an estimated 8 million recalls of the Prius world-wide.

The Toyota ad seemed to use more striking visual elements to appeal to the audience then rhetoric. It starts with nostalgic piano music and a vintage black and white photo of several dealerships. It begins by stating "For over 50 years, providing you with safe, reliable, high quality vehicles has been our first priority." This one sentence effectively acknowledges Toyotas strengths and covers some of it's weaknesses. The price of a Toyota is considerably higher then other car manufacturers which must carry a justifiebly reason for paying this premium. Secondly, it is an imported car preventing it from being considered a domestic all American car. This issue has become increasingly relevant in the consumers mind due to the recession. After all, the auto bail out has made all American tax payers financially vested in the success of GM and Ford. It adresses this deficiency again shortly after. First it acknowledges it's recent decline in quality, it then says "That's why 172,000 Toyota and dealership employees are working around the clock". While it says this it shows various American people of both genders of varying race carrying out different jobs and maintenence to vehicles. This would allude to the fact that these "172,000 employees" are American but this is not true, Toyota employs roughly 36,000 employees in America. The bulk of Toyota workers are employed in Japan and yet they don't show a single clip of a Japanese factory with all Japanese workers.

The final statement in the video is "We are working around the clock to ensure we build vehicles of the highest quality (pause) to restore your faith (pause) in our company". This deliberate pacing helps to build a dramatic affect and keeps the viewer engaged. The latter half of the sentence might also carry subconcious religious conotations. This might seem to be consipiratorial to suspect such a thing but with the intensive amount of psychological research and technology applied to marketing these days, I wouldn't rule it out.