Download Michael Johnson MEDT 7490 ​Assignment 6: The dark side of

Michael Johnson
MEDT 7490
Assignment 6: The dark side of advertising: persuasion and manipulation
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Pg. 1
In this assignment, you will analyze the visual and aural techniques used in advertising to persuade
people to buy certain products, or change their points of view. As part of your training to become
visually literate.
You will need to select a commercial from your television, and then look for it on Youtube so you are
able to pause it or play it as many times as you need.
Commercial:
“​
Nike Snow Day”
URL: ​
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2P5E7cFt9s
Watch the commercial as many times as you think is necessary. Study the characters, the
environment, the colors used, and the ambiance. Remember the TV show that you were watching
when the commercial came up, and the time of the day. Then, in a word document, write the name of
the commercial and answer the following questions:
Describe the rhetoric of the commercial in detail
According to the Wikipedia post, this commercial utilizes “Beautiful people” and “Slogans
Propaganda.” Beautiful people propaganda deals with famous people or depicts attractive, happy
people. According to the post, this suggests if people buy a productor follow a certain ideology, they
too will be happy or
successful. The commercial utilizes an array of professional athletes that are engaging in sports.The
next propaganda is called Slogans. Slogans are brief, striking phrases . The commercial constantly
mentioned, “snow day, snow day!”Although slogans may be enlisted to support reasoned ideas, in
practice they tend to act only as emotional appeals.
Describe the overall message of the commercial in detail
The add first plays during a Thursday night football game between two of the main characters. The
cold setting helps set the tone for the product that Nike is advertising. The Nike commercial is ​
The
spot pushes Nike's Hyperwarm baselayer of workout apparel that is designed for cold weather. And in
fact, kicking off winter with a tribute to the Hyperwarm line. The professional athletes come from a
variety of sports and feature both men and women.
Describe the production of the message in detail
Portland ad agency Wieden & Kennedy put it together, and in addition to all the sports talent, they
actually filmed it entirely on an indoor set, complete with houses and a snowplow. So school is
canceled due to light snow and Suh and Rob Gronkowski are captains in a hastily-organized
neighborhood football game.
Michael Johnson
MEDT 7490
Assignment 6: The dark side of advertising: persuasion and manipulation
​
Pg. 2
http://www.sportsgrid.com/nfl/heres-the-identity-of-every-athlete-in-new-nike-commercial-snow-da
y/
Describe the distribution of the message in detail
The Nike commercial is set outdoors in a snowy neighborhood. Along with Gronk and Suh, the
ad serves up Odell Beckham Jr., Le'Veon Bell, Eugenie Bouchard, Antonio Brown, Elena Delle
Donne, Marlen Esparza, Paula Findlay, Lauren Fisher, Paul George, A.J. Green, Draymond
Green, Luke Kuechly, Sydney Leroux, Carli Lloyd, Marcus Mariota, LeSean McCoy, Ben
Roethlisberger, Eric Weddle and Steven Stamkos
Describe the persuasive techniques used in the commercial in detail
Appeals to authority cite prominent figures to support a position, idea, argument, or course of action.
The professional athletes appeal to future athletes to buy a particular performance gear. The
commercial’s Pace Tempo was Slow = relaxed, passive atmosphere. The snow day demonstrates how
different athletes can use the same
Included a suggestion on how to use these types of activities in the classroom
I think that I could use this activity in my Web Design Class. Students could learn how to design their
web pages and convey messages to the viewer. The message could promote the product or business
that they are making a webpage or website for. This is similar to this commercial.
Reflection about this activity
There are many concepts that I learned about this project, namely all of the advertising techniques. I
wish I could have gathered more from the lesson. Maybe because the commercial was so
straightforward. I do believe that companies use different forms of propaganda to sell their products.