Reading Response 5

For my visual argument I wanted to try and create a message using little to no words. When I thought about it, I figured out that most of the visual arguments that stick in my head are ones with vivid images, not something that I had to take time to read. I wanted to make something explicit that would instantly capture the eyes of my audience so that my argument would be easy to understand and so there would be no confusion as to what point I was trying to get across. In my experience, the advertisements that make are easy to read and understand when you first glance at them, are ones that I remember and that leave a lasting impression. I have never wasted my time trying to figure out a an advertisement that had a large amount of text on it; in my opinion, a great ad can convey its message through visual persuasion and can appeal to its audience with little to no words.

Going back to essay number four, I was arguing that the media, specifically television, condones young teen sex. One of my points that I discussed in my essay was that because of the amount of sex that teens see on television, parents should be aware of what their teens are watching and be ready to deal with it. For my visual argument, I wanted to broaden my argument a little bit so that my point could be better understood. I decided to approach just parents, but instead of arguing that television influences teen sex, I decided to also include teen magazines and how they also influence young sex. I thought that it was important to not only focus on popular teen television shows, but to also show in a broader spectrum the different types of media that influence teenage sex.

For my visual, I decided to go all out, with no limits and make a huge collage of explicit pictures from sex scenes from popular teen television shows. I also went on to include clips that I had cut out of magazines that teens often read; all of which almost always include provocative articles on sex. There are many different pictures in my collage, but all of them are capturing people in sexual scenarios or women exposing their bodies. It’s all pretty sexual and I did this so that it would be eye catching and hopefully make parents think. On the back of my collage I included the words “What are your teens exposed to?” outlined simply with a red border.

I decided to target parents with this visual, rather then create a visual ad for teens. Since in most adolescent lives, parents have the most influence in their kid’s life, I wanted to create something that would persuade parents. I would choose to run this ad in a parenting magazine so that parents reading can be aware of what their teenager are being exposed to. Aside from parenting magazines, I would also choose to run it in magazines that are made for the middle age person, like People for example. I wanted to ask societies parents if they know what their teenagers are watching, and if not, give them some insight as to what they are seeing in daily life.
Since our ads were meant for outside of the academic setting, I decided that there was no limit to the kind of pictures I decided to pick out. I wanted to pick out the pictures that would come most shocking to parents, showing them that the media is indefinitely airing and publishing teen sex. I also chose to include no words on the front of the visual because I thought that the pictures would be enough to take in; they don’t really need an explanation. I also chose to include no words because I wanted my audience to ask themselves the “What the heck is this?” question that would cause them to turn the page to discover more. The question on the back of the ad was created to make parents wonder about what there teenagers are watching and reading and whether or not they need to evaluate how they monitor their teens.

I learned a lot about the rhetoric process when it comes to choosing how you are going to convey your message and make it stand out among all the other visual arguments and advertisements. I realized that you really need to narrow down who you are going to be speaking to in terms of your audience so that you can successfully pick out certain things that will appeal to their certain age, interests, concerns, etc. I also learned that you have to think logically about where you want your visual argument to appear. Is it something simple enough (yet still effective) to be put on a billboard for busy passerbies? Is it something that should be featured in a magazine that is aimed at a certain type of individual? There are many things you should take into consideration when making a visual argument. In the end, it is much more than a visual; it is something that requires thought and planning for a specific audience. It is all how you chose to convey your message to a specific part of society.