On the Dove's site there is a page dedicated to the "Campaign For Real Beauty." I will be focusing specifically on that web page as a whole and on a particle article meant to compliment the web page, "Fashionable Body: A Brief History."
A. The purpose of this campaign is to convince women and girls that they are beautiful, and to convince them that what the media portrays as beautiful is wrong. In the article they give many example of different women who were thought of as beautiful, and throughout history the definition of the ideal beauty has changed. Overall, the Dove Campaign wants women and girls to leave this site believing that they are indeed beautiful, have a greater self-esteem, and then go out and share that with other women and girls.
B. This web page is affective. There is something for everyone: videos, articles, personal experinces (anecdotes). You know that this campaign is successful becuase there are personal experiences of girls on the home page that express that they now see themselves as beautiful.
C. The kairos. This campaign comes at a very curcial time for females. More than any other time, women are being attacked by the media and society what beauty is. Now during this important time, this campaign is counter-attacking the media's portrayl of beauty. The campaign is specifically targeting younger girls because during that young age is when many girls solidify their image of themselves. If the campaign can get to those girls now before the media does, then they will find success.
D. Allusion: In the article the author makes specific reference in history of the beauty Cleopatra. She also references what beauty was in the 1920's and 1800's. She does this to prove that the idea of beauty is constantly influx. Therefore we should not worry about what beauty is by the world's standards and be our own kind of beautiful.
Imagery: There is one particular videa called "Onslaught" that quickly flashes many many images and clips of advertisement emphasising the world's ideal of beauty. The video very effectively pulls on the heart strings of the viewers, and leaves the viewer in a solemn mood, and almost scared of what the world is doing to the mind set of millions of young girls and women (great appeal to emotion through vivid images).
Rhetorical Question: On one of the pages explaining the Campaign they pose the question "Won't you help us?" The viewer, after reading the explaintion of the campaign, will naturally be moved to want to help. This question is intended to convince the viewer ot be moved to action.
Overstatement: The web page uses some exaggerations to prove the effect of the media on young girls' minds.
E. Hypertexuality: Everything posted on the campaign page has a link to something else related to the campaign. After only a few minutes the viewers will find themselves deep within the web page. The longer a viewer is on the page the more they learn about the campaign.
Mixed Media: There are articles, videos and images everywhere on the page. Where there is written word there is either an image or a video to complement it, which in turn will lead the viewer to another part of the page; always pulling the viewer further in.
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This website does have rhetorical intent; it is geared towards convincing girls to have high self-esteem. Do you think Dove uses different rhetorical tools to target young girls as opposed to what would be used on adults?
ReplyDeleteI think so. There isn't as much content that is focused towards adults so it is hard to anaylize the little content there is. But what is there is mostly in articles and the diction & tones are directed for an older audience. They use "bigger" and more mature words and phrases that older women would relate better to.
ReplyDeleteI like this post. I like that you took your time with the kairos and the rhetorical devices. Maybe expand a little on the devices used and their effects on the audience? That's just nit-picky, but hopefully it will help.
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