Tuesday 22 November 2016

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The ad by the US Army reveals a lot about how a society and/or a nation is meant to view the military. It portrays a young soldier leaping across a dark gap, onto a bright edge. The young soldier is one indication of the intended audience, which is presumably young men starting from the age of 16 and above. What supports and broadens the audience, is the text at the bottom of the ad. It clarifies that anyone interested in a business career has better chances if they join the military. As mentioned before, the soldier leaps onto an elevated, brighter surface. This is imagery and/or symbolism and describes that joining the army guarantees you a bright future. To add onto this, the fact that the camera is angled upwards at the soldier, and all the vectors point towards the sun and brightness, depicts the army as heroic and encourages joining it.

As pointed out in the lower part of the ad, they value teamwork and promote qualities gained through the army. It does so by linking logos and ethos strongly together. And example of this would be "9 out of 10 employers said that they prefer the qualities of determination, good judgement and self-discipline." leading onto the next sentence "Qualities that the army develops." Not only does this depict facts, but also uses them to make the army more credible and useful for the future. This can then again have an emotional impact on the viewer by making them feel proud, thus developing pathos.

Since the army is rooting for itself, the empowered in this ad would be the soldiers. Through the use of a young, fit, male model, it presumably only targets young men who are physically in shape. This also outlines societal norms of the US culture. Typically, the men are present to serve and protect and fight and strive for achieving something whereas the women stereotypically have stay-at-home jobs.

1 comment:

  1. I really like your analysis. It is very well constructed and detailed. But it would have been more effective if you had used the ACTS analysis. It is really good. Keep it up!

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