Powerful Visual Rhetoric

Find a piece of visual rhetoric online (an ad, a political cartoon, a remixed video, whatever…). Introduce it, reflect on it, and invite discussion from your group members on it. Post the picture/video within your blogpost and be sure to give full credit to its location/creator.

When we were asked to find and reflect on a piece of visual rhetoric, I found myself thinking “Could this prompt be any broader?” We were told that the visual rhetoric could be an ad, a political cartoon, a remixed video… whatever, just as long as we made sure to give full credit to the piece’s creator. As a starting off point, I got on Google and typed the keywords “visual rhetoric.” Let me tell you what a huge help that was…. I got everything from the lecture notes of an English professor in Indiana to the Wikipedia definition, none of which were all that helpful. I already knew what visual rhetoric was; I simply needed a specific example of it, an example that spoke to me, if you will, and made me want to “reflect and invite discussion.” After a few minutes of perusing useless Google results, I recalled a television commercial that I saw last year. I found the commercial on YouTube and included it above for you to check out. The commercial was created by Allstate, and it promotes the Allstate Parent-Teen Driving Contract.

When I think of advertisements, I generally think of flashy fonts, loud spiels, and corny gimmicks. This commercial is nothing like that. You simply watch teenagers drive away in a line of cars miles long. The scene is very mellow – a scenic country highway set in dark, almost melancholy lighting. The music that accompanies these images is the song “From Where You Are” by Lifehouse. The slow, tender song serves to emphasize the sadness of the images. Viewers don’t really understand why the scene and the music strike them as so sad until the very last few seconds of the commercial when the Allstate voice suddenly states, very solemnly, “Every year, nearly 6,000 teenagers go out for a drive… and never come back.” It is with that statement that viewers are suddenly impacted by the imagery and symbolism of the commercial – thousands of happy teenagers driving away… into the unknown… never to return. As the scene closes, you see nothing but tail lights driving away from you and a young teenage girl looking pensively out of a rear view window. The song lyrics playing at that exact moment are "I never thought that they'd mean everything to me. Yeah, I miss you." The only other spoken words in the commercial are “Just talking to them can change that.” The powerful commercial ends with simply the Allstate logo and the words “Parent-Teen Driving Contract.”

I was very moved by this commercial. As an example of visual rhetoric, I found it to be incredibly effective. The intended audience, American parents, and the message are both very clear. What I found most admirable and sincere about the commercial was that the message did not seem to advertise Allstate for business purposes, but to promote communication between parents and teens to make the roads safer for adult and teen drivers alike.

I appreciated this commercial and was very touched by its message. I’m curious what others think of the commercial, though. Do you think that the people at Allstate are genuine in their concern for teenagers on the road? Are they legitimately promoting a Parent-Teen Driving Contract and trying to reduce the number of teenage driving fatalities? Or have they just come up with a new and clever way to advertise their company? What do you feel is the true intent of this commercial? Did it affect you in anyway?

"Churches ad hoc"

Find a photo essay online – blog about it. Invite discussion.

I began my search for an online photo essay looking for some of those funny church road signs that one always sees collected in some cute coffee table book. Wouldn’t one of those little books be considered a photo essay in and of itself? And if so, wouldn’t you expect to be able to find some website that had collected and presented some of the best of those witty road signs into an online photo essay of sorts? Turns out… it is harder than you would think.

In the process of searching for that elusive site, however, I ran across another site hosting an “online photo essay” that tickled my fancy. You can access the photo essay of which I am speaking by simply clicking on the image included in this blog. The photo essay that piqued my interest was just one of many included on a website of “Photo Essays in Black and White” by photographer Herman Krieger. The essay that I enjoyed the most and chose to blog about was Krieger’s “Churches ad hoc.”

What I enjoyed most about “Churches ad hoc,” aside from the simple elegance of Krieger’s black and white motif, was Krieger’s clever use of captions. The pictures themselves depict all sorts of amusing and thought-provoking ironies, but Krieger enhances that quality by including beneath each photo a witty caption. The caption can be a single word or a short phrase – either way, one cannot help but chuckle. The caption beneath the image I included above was “Disestablishment.” I especially appreciated that the “One Way” sign is in alignment with “Church Street.”

In discussing photo essays in lab, we briefly touched on captions or accompanying text. Mr. Bevill stated that some pictures may have a single-word blurb beneath them, or they may be accompanied by as much as a short paragraph discussing the photo’s meaning and composition. Several of the photo essays I looked through online, such as many of those posted on the TIMES website, included short paragraphs with each photo. While that much text is useful in helping the individual viewing the photo(s) to fully understand the piece, I think that it can be somewhat distracting. I have a greater appreciation for the photos of which one can say “no words are necessary.” I am not discrediting the photos that are accompanied by a great deal of text. I am simply asserting my belief that a truly skilled artist and a genuinely impressive photo can communicate an idea to a viewer without words.

In Herman Krieger’s case, I found that he was more than capable of doing just that. His short captions only served to augment, or supplement, the humor and ideas captured in his photos. That should be the aim of every photo essayist – to attempt to fully and creatively communicate an idea without words. Trust your viewer’s ability to understand what you are saying through your photo. Trust your own ability to convey a given message through your photo. In my opinion, words serve ultimately to distract from the simple and creative art of photography and completely defeat the purpose of a photo essay.

I am curious if anyone else has any thoughts on the matter. Do you prefer photos unaccompanied by text? What about photos with short, possibly amusing captions – as with Krieger’s black and white photo essay? Are you distracted by text when viewing photos? Do you even care about anything but the photographs in a photo essay? What are your thoughts?

Comma Frustration

Describe something about grammar that confuses you – could be a rule, a question – whatever. Give an example.

Commas have always been a major source of frustration for me. The rules tie me up and confuse me to the point where I just end up putting in commas where I “feel” they belong. There is not necessarily any rhyme or reason to my comma placement. They say a comma goes “Wherever you hear a natural pause.” Well… I must pause more than the average speaker, because those are entirely too many commas. Then I remember that handy ol’ saying, “When in doubt, leave it out.” That trusty saying is equally problematic, however. Going with that strategy, I end up with almost no commas in my writing.

My general style of writing is rather conversational and very informal. I write like I speak. My written thoughts make perfect sense when spoken. Proper pauses and inflections keep things flowing. Translating the same ideas into written words can be tricky. A reader is likely to stumble when reading sentences where I have interjected quirky thoughts or appositives simply because I am unsure of comma placement. For example, take the previous sentence. Should a comma come before “simply because”? Or is the sentence fine as is? Oh, commas….

Curse Microsoft Word Grammar and Spell Check for making young people today so dependent on those red and green squiggles. Until I get a firmer handle on commas, I think I will continue resorting to the use of dashes. They seem less intimidating to me, I suppose.

Comma usage is a truly slippery slope, and I wonder if anyone will ever be able to reach the summit.

Here are a few helpful links:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_comma.html

Purdue has done it again! The above link provides some grade-A pointers on the many dos and don’ts of comma usage. It even goes so far as to give examples of correct and incorrect comma usage in many of those oh-so-tricky situations, acknowledging that “The rules provided [on the site] are those found in traditional handbooks; however, in certain rhetorical contexts and for specific purposes, [the] rules may be broken.” The site is easy to understand, and it includes (within the text) links to other potentially perplexing grammar issues.

http://iws.ccccd.edu/jmiller/A%20Brief_%20No-Nonsense%20Guide%20to%20Comma%20Usage.htm

This “Brief, No-Nonsense Guide to Comma Usage” lives up to its title. The site is organized into seven sections covering the “Seven Primary Uses of The Comma.” Each section is formatted to be easily understood and to maximize helpfulness. While this site is not as thorough as the site Purdue’s OWL offers on comma usage, it still offers several helpful tips in a humorous context.