Week 1

Yoshida 1

Ren Yoshida

Professor Marcotte

English 101

4 November 2019

Sometimes a Cup of Coffee Is Just a Cup of Coffee

A farmer, her hardworking hands full of coffee beans, reaches

out from an Equal Exchange advertisement (Advertisement). The

hands, in the shape of a heart, offer to consumers the fruit of the

farmer’s labor. The ad’s message is straightforward: in choosing

Equal Exchange, consumers become global citizens, partnering

with farmers to help save the planet. Suddenly, a cup of coffee

is more than just a morning ritual; a cup of coffee is a moral

choice that empowers both consumers and farmers. This simple

exchange appeals to a consumer’s desire to be a good person—

to protect the environment and do the right thing. Yet the ad

is more complicated than it first seems, and its design raises

some logical questions about such an exchange. Although the ad

works successfully on an emotional level, it is less successful on a

logical level because of its promise for an equal exchange between

consumers and farmers.

The focus of the ad is a farmer, Jesus Choqueheranca de

Quevero, and, more specifically, her outstretched, cupped hands.

Her hands are full of red, raw coffee, her life’s work. The ad

successfully appeals to consumers’ emotions, assuming they will

find the farmer’s welcoming face and hands, caked with dirt,

more appealing than startling statistics about the state of the

environment or the number of farmers who lose their land each

year. It seems almost rude not to accept the farmer’s generous

Source: Hacker/Sommers (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2021). This paper follows the style guidelines in the MLA Handbook, 9th ed. (2021).

Analyzing an Advertisement (Yoshida)

Marginal annotations indicate MLA-style formatting and effective writing.

The source is cited in the text. No page number is available for the online source.

Thesis expresses Yoshida’s analysis of the ad.

Yoshida summarizes the content of the ad.

Details show how the ad appeals to consumers’ emotions.

9/17

Hacker-Yoshida-MLA-Ana-Ad.indd 1 30/04/16 4:29 PM

Source: Hacker/Sommers (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2021).

Yoshida 2

offering since we know her name and, as the ad implies, have

the choice to “empower” her. In fact, how can a consumer resist

helping the farmer “[c]are for the environment” and “[p]lan for

the future,” when it is a simple matter of choosing the right

coffee? The ad sends the message that our future is a global

future in which producers and consumers are bound together.

First impressions play a major role in the success of an

advertisement. Consumers are pulled toward a product, or pushed

away, by an ad’s initial visual and emotional appeal. Here, the

intended audience is busy people, so the ad tries to catch viewers’

attention and make a strong impression immediately. Yet with a

second or third viewing, consumers might start to ask some logical

questions about Equal Exchange before buying their morning

coffee. Although the farmer extends her heart-shaped hands to

consumers, they are not actually buying a cup of coffee or the

raw coffee directly from her. In reality, consumers are buying

from Equal Exchange, even if the ad substitutes the more positive

word choose for buy. Furthermore, consumers aren’t actually

empowering the farmer; they are joining “a network that empowers

farmers.” The idea of a network makes a simple transaction more

complicated. How do consumers know their money helps farmers

“[s]tay on their land” and “[p]lan for the future” as the ad

promises? They don’t.

The ad’s design elements raise questions about the use of

the key terms equal exchange and empowering farmers. The Equal

Exchange logo suggests symmetry and equality, with two red

arrows facing each other, but the words of the logo appear almost

like an eye exam poster, with each line decreasing in font size

Words from the ad serve as evidence.

Clear topic sentence announces a shift.

Yoshida begins to challenge the logic of the ad.

Yoshida interprets details such as the farmer’s hands.

Hacker-Yoshida-MLA-Ana-Ad.indd 2 30/04/16 4:29 PM

Source: Hacker/Sommers (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2021).

Yoshida 3

and clarity. The words fairly traded are tiny. Below the logo,

the words empowering farmers are presented in contradictory

fonts. Empowering is written in a flowing, cursive font, almost

the opposite of what might be considered empowering, whereas

farmers is written in a plain, sturdy font. The ad’s varying fonts

communicate differently and make it hard to know exactly what is

being exchanged and who is becoming empowered.

What is being exchanged? The logic of the ad suggests that

consumers will improve the future by choosing Equal Exchange.

The first exchange is economic: consumers give one thing—

dollars—and receive something in return—a cup of coffee—and

the farmer stays on her land. The second exchange is more

complicated because it involves a moral exchange. The ad suggests

that if consumers don’t choose “fairly traded” products, farmers

will be forced off their land and the environment destroyed.

This exchange, when put into motion by consumers choosing to

purchase products not “fairly traded,” has negative consequences

for both consumers and farmers. The message of the ad is that

the actual exchange taking place is not economic but moral;

after all, nothing is being bought, only chosen. Yet the logic of

this exchange quickly falls apart. Consumers aren’t empowered to

become global citizens simply by choosing Equal Exchange, and

farmers aren’t empowered to plan for the future by consumers’

choices. And even if all this empowerment magically happened,

there is nothing equal about such an exchange.

Advertisements are themselves about empowerment—

encouraging viewers to believe they can become someone or do

something by identifying, emotionally or logically, with a product.

Summary of the ad’s key features serves Yoshida’s analysis.

Yoshida shows why his thesis matters.

Hacker-Yoshida-MLA-Ana-Ad.indd 3 30/04/16 4:29 PM

Source: Hacker/Sommers (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2021).

Yoshida 4

In the Equal Exchange ad, consumers are emotionally persuaded

to identify with a farmer whose face is not easily forgotten and

whose heart-shaped hands hold a collective future. On a logical

level, though, the ad raises questions because empowerment,

although a good concept to choose, is not easily or equally

exchanged. Sometimes a cup of coffee is just a cup of coffee.

Conclusion returns to Yoshida’s thesis.

Conclusion includes a detail from the introduction.

Hacker-Yoshida-MLA-Ana-Ad.indd 4 30/04/16 4:29 PM

Source: Hacker/Sommers (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2021).

Yoshida 5

Work Cited

Equal Exchange, equalexchange.coop.

Accessed 14 Oct. 2019.

Advertisement for Equal Exchange.

Work cited page is formatted in MLA style: First line of the entry is at the left margin; extra lines are indented 1⁄ 2".

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