Monday, September 24, 2012

DTC 355 Project 2 Pitch


For my project 2 topic, I chose to focus on the Washington State gubernatorial race between Republican Rob Mckenna and Democrat Jay Inslee. Having seen some of their political ads on TV, I thought it would be interesting to compare and contrast two advertisements by each of the candidates. Oddly enough they try to depict themselves in similar ways, but their approaches are a little different, and sometimes pretty funny once you notice them.

I would like to look at Rob Mckenna's "Family" and "Job Creation" , and Jay Inslee's "Built" and "Get to Work" advertisements. In both Mckenna's "Family" ad and Inslee's "Get to Work" ad, they use the tactic of showing the candidate with his family. Mckenna goes a little overboard, in rapidly jumping from each and every family member, while Inslee talks more about his family, and portrays himself as a regular working man. Each of these ads were their candidates first TV ad to air, so they have similar purposes,but they take it in different directions.
In the next pair of ads, the two candidates talk about making jobs, and again, while they have the same subject, they go in different directions.

Given the similarities of the content and purpose of these ads, but the differing styles, I think they would make for an interesting topic to analyze. For my final project I will create a webpage with side by side comparisons of each of the rhetorical categories for the coinciding  pairs of ads. This spatial organization will help the viewer to be able to spot the differences, and similarities of the rhetoric used in each advertisement.
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3 comments:

  1. UnknownSeptember 25, 2012 at 11:15 AM

    1. Since all of your links were videos, it would be a good idea to take a look at how the use of video is particularly useful in getting support. This would be the Context because these were all TV ads for political opponents.

    2. I think you should look at the comparison between what texts are on screen and what is being said at the same time. Also, it would be interesting to see what images are shown on screen and what the voice over is saying.

    3. You could look at the Job Creation video and the Get to Work video and see what types of jobs are shown in their videos and see more of the audience they are looking to attract.

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  2. Kyle.currySeptember 25, 2012 at 11:17 AM

    I think you picked a some really good ads to analyze. Not only are they laughably similar rhetorically, they're different enough to be able to contrast in a major way.

    One thing I think you should consider is the differences and similarities in audience. They are candidates in differing political parties with very similar projects in mind. Who are they speaking out to specifically?

    Sequence is also another good convention to look into. Like you said McKenna's ad jumps around a lot between his family members, while Inslee's is more slow paced and builds up through his family history. Which one has the stronger rhetoric and is more likely to resonated with voters do you think?

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  3. JoeyCheloSeptember 25, 2012 at 11:40 AM

    These ads seem interesting and funny because they almost have the same approach as you described. One of the things you may consider is describing why each candidate may have chosen each ad and who do they consider while making each ad.

    Emphasis on the family is a big part of these ads because politicians want to be viewed as a hard working family man.

    Sequence is also used in Jay Inslee's video because it shows the progression of Jay's life which can be valuable to voters, do you agree.

    Joey Betancourt

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