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RhetoricalAnalysis.docxRunning Head: RHETORICAL ANALYSIS
Rhetorical Analysis
Rhetorical Analysis
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Institution
Rhetorical Analysis
Ralph Lauren print ad from “How Advertising Has Become an Agent of Social Change” – Charly Jaffe.
Introduction
Rhetoric can be described as the use of figures of speech to persuade, the figures of speech can be through speaking, writing that may come in form of videos, pictures of audio clips. It is very present in our daily lives especially through advertising. According to Charly (2015), advertising in the modern world has reached a level whereby, it has been used for social change rather than marketing the products. Obviously through being on the side of the masses; which means they are convinced will sell the product in discussion very well. This means that rhetoric has worked and served its purpose of persuasion (Carroll 2010). The main focus of this assignment will be the Ralph Lauren print ad, which was thrown under the bus after much criticism faced mainly because of the design of the image. This print ad used rhetoric effectively, but it was considered to be a negative influence on the target audience and that is why it was pulled down. The image is of a skinny not even humanly possible skinny model who advertising the particular look Ralph Lauren was trying to sell. At the end of the day the message that reached the audience that if you are skinny then you are not “hot” or beautiful enough. Whereby the use of rhetoric was effective in this case, but the problem is that the wrong message was received.
The Ralph Lauren “skinny model” ad has been to communicate the message on their ad to the target audience successfully. Through the use of body image that a younger generation consider to be acceptable. But the ad was exaggerated to the point that it is not realistic. Can this be an example of rhetoric overuse?
The advertisement in discussion is a marketing of particular outfit the company was trying to push. It is very simple as the lady in the print is standing in a regular pose holding her hands akimbo, with a very confident look on her face. But when you look closely or rather with the first glance you will notice how skinny the lady is on the advertisement. The ad does not utilize words rather it is safe to state that the picture speaks for itself. Which might be the reason for the outrageous photoshopped waist in this case. As mentioned before, a skinny waist is considered to be a beauty standard, ladies or girls who are growing up and understanding their sexuality would find this ad enticing. Mainly because it is communicating the same message. And at the same having the Ralph Lauren outfit on your skinny waist will really be the complete package. Based on the directives of society this ad has chose to use “beauty standards” set by the society to market the product of this company. The rhetoric is effective as the message reached the target and the non-target audience who criticized the ad at the same point.
The target Audience is women and mostly young women, but at the same time the general audience collectively can be the target audience in this case. Because a father might see this ad and think my daughter would like this outfit, the same scenario a husband might think of the same. But the focus is the young women, the intriguing concept this ad is the photoshop done on the waist of the model so that she can look “more appealing.” Through this the audience will take the ad and feel that they relate with the model (Tumpich 2017). “Ralph Lauren uses a hot model therefore it is a rand for sexy or hot ladies.” Ladies who feel that the ad agrees with them on being skinny as a beauty standard probably will mostly buy this outfit. But those who are considered as fat, will try to fit in by starving or just “shop at plus size” section. Therefore, at the end of the day the target audience become very narrow as no one or less ladies have this body size. Which is not good, as it acts as a type of body shaming, which led to the criticism as some ladies would starve themselves to “fit in” the outfit.
The ad main purpose or message is to convince the target audience that this is the outfit that is perfect for them. reiterating appoint, is that the Ralph Lauren at this point had already done their market research and identified the marketing point of their next campaign. Which is not surprising that the rhetoric they choose did not need to have any supporting media like, video, audio or even words to talk for them. they only need to fit in the world of young ladies who want to set beauty standards and that is why the message is that “we cater for ladies who are skinny,” skinny being the acceptable or cool aspect at the moment. This is because it is true that for an ad to be persuasive it needs to relate to the target audience, an ad that is straight to the point like for instance in this case, the ad could have been “we make quality and fashionable jeans for ladies,” it would not have worked because it is general. There it makes sense when the model is exaggerated with a skinny waist, which was not a wise move as critics noted it and understood the harm it would bring to the target audience. Therefore, the purpose was achieved but at the same time it presented unforeseen circumstances.
The effect of the advertisement is pretty clear, mostly the negative effect. The main reason for the advertisement was to get to the target audience through the body message of being skinny. The rhetoric chosen was to use the skinny body image to market to the target audience but unfortunately it came out as a body shaming campaign (Green & Lankford, 2016). The was later on pulled down, and the model came out to condemn the idea of photoshopping her body. In this case it is important to understand that print ads are complicated to get through the target audience as it is something that everyone sees. Looking at this instance, photoshop the model to a reasonable size would have been better, but it is something that fashion or beauty brands mostly focus on. like maybe clearing any wrinkle or skin blemishes on a model to market a product. At the end of the day the reality of the matter is that no one is perfect, or no one sets beauty standards
In conclusion rhetoric helps brands, through print ads to persuade the audience into a product or a service. At the same time, it is important to makes sure that the chosen mode of persuasion does not exceed the limits to the point that it gets out of hand. There reaches a point whereby an aspect is overexaggerated, which makes it destructive or rather negative for the target audience. When it reaches this point, it means that the use of rhetoric has failed, because it is supposed to be used for progress and not regress.
References
Green, M., & Lankford Jr, R. D. (2016). Body Image and Body Shaming. Greenhaven Publishing LLC.
How Advertising has become an agent of social change by Charly Jaffe, 10th February 2015. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@moonstorming/how-advertising-has-become-an-agent-of-social-change-148aa0ef303a
Ralph Lauren print ad from “How Advertising Has Become an Agent of Social Change” – Charly Jaffe. Hyperlink: https://medium.com/@moonstorming/how-advertising-has-become-an-agent-of-social-change-148aa0ef303a
Tumpich, J. L. (2017). Advertisements and Social Appeal: Reshaping of the Twentieth Century American Woman.
