Charlotte's Rhetorical Criticism Blog

For my post I have recycled an artifact from a previous blog post. I feel as though this commercial delivers a powerful message that ties in well with pedantic criticism, and can serve as a strong selection for my second critical essay. The artifact is a commercial from the company P&G called, “P&G Thank You, Mom | The Winter Olympics 2018 | #LoveOverBias”

Act: Several things go on in this commercial. Each child featured is different, and experiences different struggles. What brings them all together, however, is the way each other their mothers look at them, and this commercial shows the progression how each child overcomes their various obstacles through their mother’s love and support.

Agency: The agency is the hashtag #LoveOverBias, which promotes perceiving people equally, instead of from a bias and prejudice perspective.

Agent: Because there are several kids featured in this commercial, I focused on one in particular for the agent. Therefore, the agent is the first girl we see, who jumps on her bed admiring the Olympic skiers pictured on her bedroom wall. At the end of the commercial we see her again as a young woman, competing and finishing her race in the Olympics for skiing.

Purpose: The purpose of this commercial is to show the audience what a world without judgement looks like. A mother’s love is unconditional and free of judgement, despite what others have to say. The commercial brings to viewer’s attention the importance of seeing past small things that separate people from one another, in order to bring society together. It also shows how bias opinions of others prevents people from living up to their full potential.

Scene: There are also several different scenes that take place during this commercial, however, the most prevalent scene is the Olympics. At the beginning of the commercial, the agent is a young girl dreaming of becoming an Olympic skier. At the end, she makes it to the Olympics, and wins, where we see her #1 fan, her mother.

Ratio/Dominant Term: Sonja Foss explains that “Ratios are used to discover the dominant pentadic element.” (Foss 361). Therefore, the ratio I discovered is purpose-act. Purpose is the dominant term because it delivers the most important effect of the commercial. Without the purpose of the act, we cannot understand the significance of the commercial.

“Walking On Sunshine” by Katrina & The Waves

Metaphors are present in our lives almost every day. We may not always take the time to see it, but you can find them in a variety of sources. For my selected artifact, I analyzed the song “Walking on Sunshine” by Katrina & The Waves. For this post, I will break down the rhetorical aspects of this artifact, and how it applies to metaphorical criticism.

“Walking on Sunshine”

This song delivers an upbeat, and rather fast pace. The music is vibrant and exciting, making you want to get up and dance. She sings about someone she loves, who at first she’s not sure loves her back. The song explains the progression of her relationship with this person, and as they establish their love, how it fills her life with happiness. Now that she knows this person loves her, she’s confident, and compares her feelings to what it’d feel like to walk on sunshine, which is pure happiness!  See below for the lyrics and song:

The Metaphors

The chorus of the song, “I’m walking on sunshine!” contains the metaphors, and to this song’s advantage, the chorus repeats a significant amount.

Sunshine resembles happiness, because it’s bright and warm, such how we feel when we’re happy. The singer is not literally walking on sunshine, because that’s not physically possible, however she’s applying metaphorical criticism in order to compare sunshine to her happiness. She’s clearly in love, and being in love typically feels happy. In the singer’s case, because she and her partner love each other, she expresses her emotions through this song, utilizing metaphorical criticism to compare sunshine to the happiness that derives from the love she receives from this particular person she sings about.

The Vehicles/Tenors

The vehicle of metaphors is the mechanism/lens through which the topic is viewed. (Ross 2009). Therefore, The vehicle I have located in my artifact is healthy relationships. I suggest that the audience can view this song with the perspective that they would like to feel the way the singer feels about being in love. The tenor, on the other hand, is the topic or subject being explained. As it’s already been established, the topic is happiness, and Katrina & The Waves properly executes this explanation through her metaphor, “I’m walking on sunshine!”

Explanation

I can make the assumption that the singer was compelled to write this song to show her audience what it’s like to feel the way she does, which is genuine happiness. Because Katrina & The Waves creates a song that evokes such positivity with it’s cheerful lyrics and music, I suggest that listeners to this song who are feeling down can apply this song to their lives song to brighten their mood, and become inspired to find their sunshine! Not only that, but Katrina & The Waves can make their audience reflect on their personal relationships, and ask themselves, “Do I feel like I’m walking on sunshine with this person?”

“P&G Thank You, Mom. The Winter Olympics 2018 #LoveOverBias” youtube.com

P&G Commercial for the 2018 Winter Olympics 

For my post, I selected an emotionally appealing, and powerful message produced by Protector & Gamble. Their aim at this commercial is to display to their audience how great of a world we’d live in if everyone viewed each other the same way a mother views her child, that is with love. Protector & Gamble’s audience for this commercial is just about anyone from all over the world, because it was made for the 2018 Winter Olympics, which, is watched by millions, from all different countries. Essentially, by showing what an accepting world looks like through a mother’s perspective, this commercial attempts to break the bias opinions of the world, in order to overcome those struggles.

“When the world sees differences, a mom sees boundless potential. For the Winter Olympics 2018, we’re honoring a mom’s role in helping her kids overcome the world’s bias. Just imagine what the world could be if we all saw each other through a mom’s loving eyes.” (Protector & Gamble 2017).

Presented Elements 

The presented elements in this commercial are the relationship between a mother and her child. Throughout the commercial, you see children struggling by the pressures of the world/society. Each time a kid falls down, their mother is there to pick them up. For example, when boy dances around, his mom sees a bruise, most likely from a bully. Although he gets beaten up for being different, his mom is always there to love him, we can see it in her face. Or when the kid with the prosthetic leg gets shoved on the bus, his mom is waiting at the bottom to give him a hug. Seeing how nurturing each mother is to her child signifies that this type of love can help people overcome their obstacles.

Suggested Elements

The suggested elements in this commercial are Protector & Gamble’s way of challenging society to look at everyone the way the mothers look at their children in this commercial do. By using all kinds of kids, such as the little girl who wants to be an Olympic skier, but her mom cannot provide financially, to the boy who gets bullied, hence the bruise on his for being flamboyant (as seen when he prances around in tight clothing), and the little boy with a prosthetic leg, the commercial suggests that these people who are “different” are not typically accepted by society, and now we are challenged to be as accepting as mothers are.

The Ideology 

The ideology this commercial is aiming for is acceptance, specifically accepting one another for their differences. This commercial indicates that although the world may see these people as different, when we see the way their mother’s look at them, it provokes the audience to feel a sense of hope that if we can love others the way our mothers do, our world can live in harmony. It also empowers the beauty of standing out. Each child in this commercial has something that sets them apart from each other, and from the world. However, what they all have in common is the love their mothers have for them, and as we are able to see how they strive for greatness, and accomplish their goals, the audience can conclude that a mother’s love fixes all. Thus, we must accept people they way our moms accept us.

Two genres of music that consist of a large similarity are alternative, and indie, and fall under the same specific genre of music, as well. When it comes to the two, alternative and indie music both categorize under the “rock” genre of music, meaning that there’s a type of “indie rock” and “alternative rock.” Many frequent listeners of this genre(s) of music would agree that the two sound very similar. For example, I have selected four bands that compose alternative and indie music, and will further explain the differences and similarities, as this concerns the study of generic criticism.

Alternative: The Head and the Heart & Young the Giant 

When I researched “alternative music” the only definitions given were in relation to alternative rock. However, when I pull up the two bands I selected, the genre they fall under, is alternative alone. Thus, the genre of alternative music indicates that it may need a whole separate genre itself. By definition, from  https://audials.com/en/genres/alternative_music.html , “Alternative rock is a genre of rock music from the underground music scene of the 1980’s and became widely popular in the 1990’s. The term “alternative” was coined in the 1980’s to describe punk rock inspired bands on independent record labels that did not fit into the mainstream genres of the time.” (Audials, 2018). While this definition is helpful in some ways, it does not answer my initial question, that is, “What is alternative music?” If I wanted to know about alternative rock, I would have asked about that specific type of music. With that being said, it brings me curiosity whether the genre, rock, has taken over alternative music, or whether it’s become it’s own genre in itself, because from my understanding, these two bands, which, I’m highly fond of, are not alternative rock, but are simply, alternative.

The difference/similarity:

Now, after more research, it has come to my attention that one difference between indie and alternative music, is that the two portray more loose thoughts and ideals than most definitive types of music. The main difference is where the musicians derived. Alternative music was popular in America, essentially, whereas indie was directly from Britain.  Where these loose genres make up similarities is that they both aim to produce music that one might say “doesn’t follow the crowd.” Also known as, not your typical type of music, whichever that may be. (Perhaps pop, country, hip-hop, more “well-known” genres).

research from: https://www.thoughtco.com/are-alternative-music-indie-the-same-94033

Indie: Tame Impala & The Shins

When it comes to indie music, this loose genre, falls under the category of rock as well, thus justifying it’s similarity to alternative. Indie music is said to be music that is made independently from common music companies. Indie rock, however, is said to be of the same genre as alternative rock.

research from: http://theconversation.com/explainer-indie-music-28321

Confused? I am too. Isn’t that the beauty of generic criticism? 🙂 

In conclusion, generic criticism has signaled me to recognize that most genres, of any kind, have deeper meanings, and further names for their genres. In this case, alternative and indie music can fall under the genre of rock, making it alternative rock, and indie rock, however, the four bands listed above compose their own genres aside from the genre of rock. Therefore, while it’s easy to assume one may have knowledge of specific genres, there can also be a whole other meaning, and name, to those genres.

This TedTalk was given on January 16th, 2013. Cameron Russell, a widely known American model is the rhetor of this TedTalk. Cameron started her modeling career at a very young age, and while her success in her career does not go unnoticed, she reveals the heavy truth behind the life of a model. Cameron’s initial intent is to persuade her audience into understanding that appearance is not all that there is to achieve success in your life.

By acknowledging her own personal insecurities during her talk, she gives her audience a greater sense that just because she meets the requirements of what the media believes to be “attractive,” it does not mean she is satisfied with her career as a model. Cameron opens up about the harsh pressure she was under by the industry she modeled for, and how it shaped her perspective on the true definition of beauty.

“If there’s a takeaway from this talk I hope its that we all feel more comfortable acknowledging the power of image in our perceived successes and our perceived failures.” (Russell, 2013).

Hello!!!!

For starters, my name is Charlotte Dash and I’m a sophomore at Longwood! I am an English major with a concentration in Rhetoric and Professional Writing.

This blog serves a purpose to study what makes rhetorical criticism, well, rhetorical criticism! By analyzing  how people deliver presentations, such as works of writing, speeches, texts, etc., I will be able to observe how that specific speaker utilizes persuasion, in order to make his or her argument strong and effective.

I will be writing about topics related to my ENGL 301 course, Rhetorical Criticism, such as Neo-Aristotelian criticism, Generic criticism, Ideological criticism, metaphor criticism, and finally, Pentadic criticism!

I am in hopes that this blog will attract the audience of my peers that also pursue a passion for rhetoric and professional writing, or anyone that can use this blog as a helpful source for inspiration!

I intend to utilize the information I learn from this course into what’s going on in the world around us, especially modern day society, with a rhetorical perspective.  I have only just begun on my adventure as a professional writer, and I am optimistic that as I proceed to explore the foundation of rhetoric, I will flourish into the writer I hope to be one day. Thanks for reading!

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