Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Response to BP Commercial

Here are the 5 types of argument I picked up on, and how effective I believe them to be: 

Arguments about the Past/Present/Future- The woman in this commercial continually expressed how BP was going to be there in the future up until the point that all of the oil is cleaned up from the gulf. I find this to be a tad ironic, because she acts so concerned, like this is such a huge project they're trying to put forth, and do good in the community, when in fact it was their fault the oil is there in the first place. I don't think this argument is very effective because the audience would most likely have the same initial thought in that it is almost their duty to clean up all of the oil, and not just something that looks good, or a project that others are proud to watch them do. 

Invitational Argument- There isn't necessarily a point where she asks you to respond to her questions, obviously, because it's a commercial, however they do put up a telephone number up, as well as websites throughout the length of the commercial where people can call in for information, or help, or questions. This is their own way of asking others to participate in the argument and get feedback, and possibly other peoples viewpoints. This argument can be seen as effective, because it effectively opens up this topic for discussion, aka an invitation, aka an invitational argument.

Arguments to Inform- There are certain facts that the woman in the commercial states simply to inform the audience of specific details. Such as: "We have 19 centers in 4 states", and "We've committed $20 billion in an independent claims fund to cover lost income until people impacted can get back to work." She even says that a sole purpose of the commercial is to inform. I think she was successful in making this argument effective, because I, for one, didn't know any of these actual facts, and I'm sure others thought these to be informative as well.

Arguments to Convince- The underlying theme of this commercial is to prove that BP is taking steps to improve the oil spill situation. The woman proposes the argument about restoring communities, the economy, and the environment to convince the audience that they are in fact taking this very seriously. She backs up all of her argument by giving examples of how they're trying to change things. This argument was effective, for the most part, because I truly do feel as though they're taking the necessary measures to make things better. The only thing that could by iffy is how long all of this should take.

Rogerian Argument- The speaker is using Rogerian Argument in a couple places in this commercial. The point of Rogerian argument is to find a common ground between the speaker and the audience, and to keep things non threatening. The woman talked about how she was working with shrimpers, fishermen, hotel workers, restaurant employees, and others to start solving problems to hopefully help the economic loss. I feel as though she's trying to evoke feelings from people that may watch this commercial that are a part of the industry that was effected by this, and in turn, they may feel as though she's reaching out to them specifically to help them with their problems. Also, at the end of the commercial, she talks about how she's from New Orleans, and how her family still lives there. My guess is she wants to find a common ground between her and those who may live along the gulf where this problem is severely effecting their lives. I feel as though this argument could be taken effectively if you are someone who she specifically reached out to, however I am not one of those people, and I still just think the whole BP situation is their fault and nothing more than that, therefore they should of course be doing everything they can to repair all the damage they've put forth.

8 comments:

  1. It looks like you did a really good job analyzing the commercial. For the most part I agree with your your arguments(I think I chose the same five you did). I also didn't know that BP had the 19 centers or that they had a 20 billion dollar fund.

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  2. I think I said a lot of the same things you did, but I think that the assurance of them being there in the future is would be more effective than you stated. I would bet that fisherman and hotel owners generally see BP as a huge company that is only out there to make a profit. If I was a fisherman over there I'd be relieved to hear that they're not going to just abandon me.

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  3. Some of the arguments you found I didn’t even think of like past/present/future and Rogerian. You definitely analyzed this commercial pretty well. I like your point about the invitational argument and the usage of their website and contact information can be used for this purpose. Very clever indeed nice blog.

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  4. Wow,Alli, I think you did a great job on this and I got a great number of hint from your response. I also think that even there are five or more than five types of arguments in the commercial, the woman did not show them all. She just gave out some facts to inform. I did not quite get the point of rogerian argument in the commercial.

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  5. After reflecting on this commercial more and more, it makes me wonder how genuine this commercial actually is. On the surface this may seem like BP making an honest effort to fix THEIR problem, but in reality they have been forced into this position, because if they chose to not make this much of an effort, it would make them look that much worse.

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  6. Allie, you really did a great job with this blog. I totally agree with you when you said that BP is totally at fault for the oil spill and so they should really be doing all they can do to fix the damage they caused. Great Job!

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  7. I really like the way you structured your post, it is very organized and looks very clean. The only thing I think you could add is the background stuff, like the hopefully, depressing music. Otherwise you have everything very well covered about what she is saying and doing in the first place.

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  8. Many of your arguments actually were similar to the observations I made. Your post was well organized and covered each aspect presented in the text. I think your most powerful statement was when you noted that the BP representative was trying to evoke emotions by giving off the impression she was working with the fishermen, etc.

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