Assignment:
Your task is to do a rhetorical analysis of a political advertisement. In our class we covered two types of rhetorical analysis– Aristotelian Analysis, and Metaphor Analysis. Your paper can focus on one or both of these methods. Use whichever terms help you best explain the rhetorical strategies of the political ad. In your papers introduction, you will likely have to put the advertisement in context and explain the rhetorical situation of the ad.
The body paragraphs should break down the ad and reassemble it to make points. Lastly, your paper should have some element of synthesis in it as well. It should incorporate ideas from the following list of class readings.
Lakoff and Johnson “Metaphors We Live By.”
Osborn, Michael. “Archetypal Metaphor in Rhetoric: The Light-Dark Family.”
Geary, James. Excerpt from I is an Other, “Metaphor and Politics.”
Fowles, Jib. “Advertising’s 15 Basic Appeals.”
George Lakoff: “Don’t Think of an Elephant”
So, in summary. Your goal is to explain the rhetoric of your chosen ad (how the ad is persuasive). You can break it down using Aristotelian analysis and/or metaphoric analysis. And your ad should use one of the articles we read in Unit 3 as a source.
Please choose a political campaign ad of your choice.
Here are some websites to choose from:
Choose any political ad. Here are two good archives. Or you may find the ad anywhere on the internet as long as you can provide a link.
Ppcl.stanford.edu.
Livingroomcandidate.org.
Be sure to post a direct URL link to your ad after your name on the paper.