Causal Argument—dudeintheback

The prescription of Adderall will lead to a lifetime of addiction, and many other social problems

In today’s society, we trust everything that a doctor tells us. We follow their prescriptions, and advice because we were paying them to give us the best answers to our illnesses. In most cases, doctors want what is best for their patents, but doctors unfortunately do not make their money from treating healthy patients. Also, unfortunately, our society’s view of what truly helps is medication. The prescription of medication gives us reassurance, and in many cases, the medication works for the prescribed individual. Once medication is perceived to be this sort of “Miracle pill” to the user, who thinks the medication is a necessary part of their daily success, a whole new can of worms is popped open with its own problems. Looking at the prescription of Adderall, an ADHD ( Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ) medication, the drugs Addictive properties, and perceivable superhuman brain ability is just what doctors want in the medication.

A child who has symptoms of ADHD, may blurt out the answers before the questions have been completed, has difficulty awaiting turn, or intrudes and interrupts others. Temperaments that can simply be the result of bad teachings, and immaturity. Describing ADHD as a made up mental illness would be wrong, since there are definitely cases of people whose problems cannot be subdued thorough punishment, and behavioral teaching. The problem is, a doctor, or a parent (sometimes both) agree on the  prescription of medication as the solution to their child’s classroom disturbances. What they should realize, is that with these amazing results of astounding performance, and a quilled, drugged up child, brings nothing but harm in the future.

We cannot idly sit by to a prescription that changes our immature youths brain. The  Recovery village, which specializes in addiction awareness/education, put an article up on their website titled, “Is Adderall Safe? | Safe for Adults and Children?” describing the true risk of the drug. As a parent, we want what’s best for our kid. We cannot deny the therapeutic effects of Adderall onto those with ADHD. In return, we must also realize that these symptoms of ADHD can disappear over time. The article describing the pills purpose as, “… not meant to be a long-term treatment because symptoms of ADHD often get better in children as they get older”. The problem with this thinking of solving the problem at the beginning, or first signs of ADHD, is that the prescription can be fully avoided by letting a child figure out the consequences of their actions. As their symptoms perceivably get better, an ADHD diagnosed person is already on that daily regiment of popping that miracle pill each day. Someone who is reliant on this pill, and who has been brought up entrusting that pill with their normality in society cannot simply say goodbye to the pill when symptoms vanish.

The love of Adderall is not just due to Adderall’s unnatural performance enhancing, but its extremely addictive properties as well. The devastating effects of addiction should be enough to deter anyone from approaching any drug, but people tend to overlook, and outweigh addiction with all of the miracle works of said drug. In a first person account of one womans Adderall downfall published by The Washburn Review, in an article titled, ”The real effects of Adderall: a personal testimony” Taylor Evans goes in depth in her experiences. Evans knew that she did not have ADHD, but a simple visit to the doctors office with descriptions of problems with paying attention, and whatever other fluff she needed to embellish on to get the Adderall prescription. Evans loved the drug, comparing taking Adderall to “being superwoman.” She could get all of her homework done, write papers longer than the required length, clean her house until it was spotless and still pick up extra hours at work. Amazing right? Why would someone want to throw this superhuman opportunity away. Simple, they can’t. Once someone builds up this notion of only achieving that success from the medication, they will make the connection of    pill = success, and no pill = no success. As time went on, Evans addiction to the drug worsened. The author says, “…Evans started accomplishing less at school and work and shifted her main focus to finding more pills. This disrupted both her studies and home life”. The drug will turn the user into them fully depending on the medication.

The matter of originally classifying a child’s temperaments, and immature qualities as ADHD stigmatizes a child, and puts them in a category different from others who are perceived to be “normal”. Once this connotation is put around an adolescent, they will start to think they need medication to be normal. In a YouTube video titled, “CCHR Co-Founder Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus” Dr. Thomas Szasz describes the connotation an illness or disease has now. He believes that any disease cannot be not based on behavior, its something in the body that malfunctions. The stigma and connotation ADHD has around it is socially constructed. By diagnosing a child with ADHD and classifying it as a disease, or disorder stigmatizes a child, and puts them in a category that they should not be in. Parents should not think that their kid has an illness based on behavior, and should not jump to try to treat it. Instead, society, and doctors push to treat immediately. When you make a child feel like he is sick, and needs the medication to be normal, this messes up the kid for the rest of his life. Putting him in the pill cycle till they don’t have any more pills to take… and when they don’t have the pills, they believe they cannot be normal.

This topic first spiked my interest when I started living with an Adderall addict. Seeing how dependent he was on the drug to be able to wake up, go to class, maintain his appetite, and stay focused scared me. It is not natural to have something change your performance so much. The benefits of the prescription (which there are many positive effects of the drug) should not even be considered if there is potential for a lifetime or dependency.

 

 

Work cited

https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/adderall/adderall-safe/#gref

https://search.proquest.com/docview/1715703263?pq-origsite=summon

 

Causal Argument First Draft – PaulaJean5

The World Around You is Creating a Biased Version of Yourself

Today, the placebo effect has been a big part of pharmaceutical trials. Placebos and their effect really only have had a place in medical facilities. But, once you dive in to the placebo effect and the way it affects our mind, there is a whole different side of placebos and the way we view them.

We are affected by unconscious forces 24/7. You may randomly be in a bad mood and not know why. This is most likely due to something you heard or saw without really taking notice to it. If you walked past a couple fighting, you may have noticed it and then let the thoughts pass. The feelings may have stayed with you , though. Although these two individuals arguing did not make you directly upset, you may have heard a word or phrase that subconsciously triggered a negative feeling in your mind. This may be because of certain stereotypes or different experiences in your life.

One study included two classes taking a standardized test. One class was asked to confirm their gender beforehand and one was asked to after. The class that got asked prior to taking the test had very interesting results. The girls in that particular class did worse than the girls in the other class while the boys did better than the others. This was due to stereotypes against certain genders. The females may have subconsciously felt inferior and created a lower self esteem before the test which led to a lower average grade than the other class. The males could have been reassured or had a boost in self esteem due to a male’s role in society being stereotypically and in some cases actually superior to a female’s. This was such a simple question yet had such an effect on their actions and results.

A lot of the things around you really impact what and how you do things.

References

S. (2011, June 02). Asking Students to Confirm Their Gender Before a Test Leads to Lower Scores for Girls, Higher for Boys. Retrieved February 27, 2018, from https://www.themarysue.com/gender-in-test-taking/

Causal Argument- amongothers13

Low-Income Communities+Low-Funded Schools= Less Preparation+Less Opportunities

It would make no sense to capture an elegant butterfly, and then trap it in a confined, windowless room, correct? How would the butterfly survive? How would it adapt? The answer is simple: it cannot survive without a struggle. If this is the case, why take young students and place them in an underfunded school system? How would they learn everything they need to become successful? How would they be prepared for what life has to offer?

The education gap between poor and rich communities has grown immensely over the last couple decades. There is one main cause: the environment and location the schools are placed in. In an area with low property taxes, poor communities do not provide enough money in order for the schools to give the proper supplies and resources needed in a classroom. These children are left to “make-do” with what they have, which is undeniably not enough. Why are these children suffering?

An article from The Atlantic titled  How Ineffective Government Funding Can Hurt Poor Students, claims that 14 states are currently providing less money to poor community schools with a lot of students coming from poor areas. It also states that 19 states have a funding system that does just enough to meet the standards. These schools lack valuable resources and an abundance of them to ensure a quality education. These states fail to provide help to children in low income areas. There are over 11 million poor students in the United States that are not receiving the education they deserve. Schools struggle to purchase enough textbooks, calculators, rulers, papers, etc due to the property taxes and low income.

Richard Fleming, who is a superintendent of the Greene County School District in Mississippi, speaks out on the effects of low-income property taxes on the school itself. He claims the school had to cut positions and end jobs for some employees of the school because they did not have enough money to pay them. He says his district is in “survival mode”, meaning they are struggling just to provide the basic needs for the children. He says the school is behind on technology, cannot provide the arts, sports, or a choir. (Hechingreport.org)

The lack of necessary materials takes a large toll on student success. Without the necessary tools, students inevitably perform at lower rates than the highly funded school students do. Teachers often have to pay for classroom resources from their own money, or are forced to use old books from other schools that do not even cover what is in their plans or the school’s curriculum. They also have no clear way to track data of what schools need what textbooks and what curriculum would best fit.  It allows the school to see what they already have and what they need more of to be successful. Without this data, it is clear that the needs are not met, for they have no way how to reach them. (The Odyssey)

Not only do these children endure difficult lives at home, for low-income areas often lack resources, they are being sent to school to endure even more difficulty with developing and learning. The middle class seems to dissipating as the gap between the rich and the poor grows wider and wider. Funding has been cut a tremendous amount and in some states, pre-K education has been cut entirely and some schools had to deny some kids from attending school due to population. The states have not hesitated to cut funding, yet they haven’t made any true effort to gain money to support the schools.  Most of the children from poor areas come to school without have had eaten breakfast yet, or have just encountered secondhand smoke, abuse, neglect,  dressed in light, poor clothing and torn shoes. The bottom line is that their lives are difficult enough- why should they suffer even more in the place they are supposed to succeed? In the place they have a right to succeed? Everybody talks about the gap, but nobody does anything to fix the gap, or even attempt to do so. Children from these areas are dropping out of high school before they graduate. There were about 3 million teens in 2009 that did not have a high school diploma or were not enrolled in school at all. The drop out rate for low-income students is five times greater than the drop out rates of high-income schools- 7.4%. High school dropouts are not able to apply for 90% of the worlds jobs. This means that children from low-income areas are denied a job that pays enough to support them before they even get a chance to get an interview for the job; they are turned down on the spot, and it is all because of the lack of funding in low-income communities. (Huffington Post)

Children are not succeeding simply because of the area they were born into. The effect the low-funded schooling has on them is tremendous. If they cannot use the tools they need, if they do not learn what is on the curriculum, they are going to be unprepared and under-educated when it comes time to go to college or to apply for jobs. So, basically, these children are “doomed” from birth, as they are not guaranteed the right to the education they are entitled to. And the worst thing is, it all starts with the government funding, the ones who know that low-income areas do not earn enough money to properly fund a school. Therefore, we are trapping these children’s potentials in that same dark room the butterfly is in, beautiful, bold-but restricted, tested, trapped.

Sources:

http://hechingerreport.org/how-does-underfunding-actually-affect-schools-four-questions-with-greene-county-superintendent-richard-fleming/

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/06/how-funding-inequalities-push-poor-students-further-behind/395348/

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/lack-of-material

http://www.theedadvocate.org/poverty-and-school-funding-why-low-income-students-often-suffer/

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/20/high-school-dropout-rates_n_1022221.html

Visual Rhetoric-Dancers

0:00-0:01- A penguin is standing on a hill of snow potentially about to start walking down the hill. The penguin is looking off to one side of the hill minding his own business.

0:01- The penguin started to walk down, or on the snow turned the direction of his face. Still nothing bad is happening just a penguin on a hill.

0:03- The penguin jumps up into the hill, maybe he is about to slide down the hill of snow in order to get down quicker.

0:05- The penguin did decide to slide down the hill on his stomach, while sliding down he is gaining a lot of speed. Seems to be okay though the penguin is having no problems.

0:10- The penguin turns around to look at what would be his pocket, maybe to grab something out of it perhaps a phone.

0:11- 0:15- The penguin decided to grab his phone and answer the message that he had received. He is now sliding down the hill at a fast rate while staring completely at his phone and not to anything around him.

0:16- The penguins demeanor changed completely he looked up from his phone he seems worried and anxious like something may happen to him.

0:18- The penguin rammed into a hill/pile of snow on the screen is an imprint of the penguin on the pile of snow, where the penguin has went through.

0:21: Text on the video pops up and says “No One Should Text While Driving” the imprint of the penguin is still on the hill in the back. This has an impact reminding you that even the penguin crashed into the hill of snow because he was on his phone. This video was powerful in a sense that even though it wasn’t a totally direct take on texting and driving it still proved a point. Anyone texting and driving can be hurt even if its a penguin on a hill of snow.

Causal Argument- summergirl1999

Student Debt: Success or Scam

In American society, having a college degree holds weight. Working towards a college degree shows employers that students are motivated to succeed. A college degree can determine raises, well-paying careers, and most importantly success. Attending college is highly encouraged by teachers, parents, friends and other mentors that students come across on a daily basis. ‘Successful’ is a word that everyone wants to describe themselves as, and American society says that a college education is one of the steps that can help students move in the right direction towards success. Every person is different, which means different personal and finical issues. Depending on the person, college can either be worth the time and money or not.

Person A, is an example of positive effects of attending college. Person C, is an example of the negative effects of attending college. College tuition is very expensive, public university tuition is averaged at $25, 290, and private university tuition is averaged at $50,900. Person A has a finically stable background and money saved, so the price of tuition is not a problem. Person B does not have a stable background and no money saved due to personal issues, so the price of tuition is a challenge so they have to take out student loans so they can attend college. Students choose to go to college so they have more opportunity to choose their career. Person A, chooses the career of their choice because they enjoy it and salary. Person B wants to choose a certain career but it raises the tuition so they choose another career that they do not enjoy as much but it has a good salary. “Students in the sciences, engineering, computing, premed programs, and the fine arts often pay more. For example, at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, students enrolled in the College of Engineering pay up to $5,000 more in tuition than students pursuing other majors” (College Data.) Student loans are a factor of college. Students take out student loans if they do not have the money to pay for their college tuition. Students take out money from loaners who lend them the money to attend college, in return after the student has graduated college they must pay back the loans plus interest. Interest rates vary by the loaner, undergraduate degrees interest rates vary around 4.45% and graduate degrees interest rates vary around 6.00%. Person A either has to borrow a little amount of money in loans or none at all. Person C is not finically stable, they have to borrow student loans to pay off their college tuition. Student debt is a huge issue in America, it is one of the largest debts America encounters. “For the 2013-14 school year, the government sank $126 billion into undergraduate student aid” (MoneyWatch.)

Students attend college so they can establish a steady career. When college graduates apply for careers, most careers look at what college the graduate attended, college recognition. Person A graduated from Harvard University as a chemistry and physics major. Harvard University is one of the most prestigious colleges in America, and has recognition. Harvard Universities tuition is $63,025. Person C graduated from South Texas College also as a chemistry and physics major. The tuition at South Texas College is $11,892. Although South Texas College has good reviews and is a college it does not have the same recognition as Harvard University. If Person A and Person C both applied for a job for chemistry and physics, Person A would most likely get the job. “The rankings, it turned out, mattered a great deal. The more elite a school, the better its alums’ paychecks. The effect also increased over time. Among students who had graduated high school in 1980, those who had gone on to a top private university eventually made 20 percent more than their counterparts from bottom tier public school. For the class of 1972, the wage boost was just 9 percent” (The Atlantic.)

A career is not guaranteed with a college degree. Graduates that come out of college with a degree are still not guaranteed a job in the field that they studied and not guaranteed a high paying career right away. Graduates that go out in the real world need a job to pay for all of their expenses, beyond what they owe on their student loans. Although students attend college so they can have a higher chance – or even a chance at all at pursuing a career, the career is not always guaranteed. “Millions of college graduates who saw a degree as their ticket to a good-paying career and a secure life are working in jobs that do not require their education or even a high school diploma, sometimes leaving them with small wages to pay thousands in student debt, according to a new study” (The Denver Post.) Person A went to a prestigious college, got a career in their trained field, paid off their little amount in student debt and just bought a house. Person C went to an average college and could not find a job right after gradation so they had to get a job at a Target so they can pay off their necessities (rent, food, utilities, and personal purchases.)  Six months after Person C graduated college, they needed to start paying off their student loans, which can be a huge inconvenience and challenge because Person C is making an average of $9.33 an hour.

It is hard enough for graduates to deal with the amount of debt they are in themselves, but people have personal problems that can make it more challenging. For Person A, college was worth it because, they had enough financial stability to choose a prestigious college that cost $63,025. Also, because Person A got a career in their field with a steady salary right after college which helped pay off their student loans. For Person C, college was not worth it because although they have a college degree they could not find a stable job. Since Student C took out student loans they are still obligated to pay back their student loans.

WORKS CITED PAGE

https://www.collegedata.com/cs/content/content_payarticle_tmpl.jhtml?articleId=10064

https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/loans/student-loans/student-loan-interest-rates/

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-biggest-problems-with-americas-colleges/

https://www.harvard.edu/about-harvard/harvard-glance

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/05/does-it-matter-where-you-go-to-college/257227/

https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Target-Salaries-E194.htm

Visual Rhetoric- jdormann

0:00-0:01 There is a grey cartoon bull in a light blue colored room with potted flowers hanging on the wall. There are also flowers hung on a strand across the ceiling. The bull is looking down and looks like he feels bad about something.

0:01-0:02 The bull picks his head up and seems to be happy now. The screen shifts to an old lady holding a pot of flowers in a window, and the bull appears on the other side of the window and is happy to be smelling the flowers.

0:02-0:03 The old lady looks up and sees the bull and looks to be in shock. The bull takes off running and knocks the potted flowers off of the old lady’s outside window. It is clear to see the bull is outside.

0:03-0:04 A man is outside of what seems to be his house and the bull is looking at him face to face and the man carefully goes back in his house out of fear.

0:04 -0:05 When the man shuts the door, the bull becomes sad. The bull is running fast and looks angry. There is a hole in what looks to be a large dirt field.

0:06-0:07 The bull jumps and looks like he regrets it. He then looks scared and the camera shifts to a rabbit that looks terrified. I would assume the bull is jumping towards the rabbit.

0:08-0:09 The bull lands over the rabbits hole with his horns on either side, not injuring the rabbit at all. He then is standing next to the hole with a goat and they are both looking at the rabbit as it jumps back into the hole. The bull looks like he feels guilty.

0:10-0:11 The bull is looking at a waterfall in a valley and then the screen shifts to an animal transportation trailer and I would assume the bull is inside of that trailer.

0:12-0:13 There is a landscape of a tree on a hill and then the screen shifts to the bull surrounded by animal shaped balloons. The bull seems to be happy.

Visual Rhetoric-Thenaturalist201

0:00-0:01 A boy who seems happy is shown probably around 6 years old based on size and dinosaur shirt. on the left of the screen, you see a bike handle and within that second you see him ripping something. The boy could have received a bike as a present.

0:01 In the image we see the bike in the center implying that is the main focus. the boy is holding wrapping paper and the bike has a bow on it so we can assume that it is either his birthday or some sort of celebration also based on people surrounding him and you can see some people clapping

0:01-0:03 The next image we see is the shoes of the boy but older riding the same bike. and then cuts to an image of his face. His facial expression shows that is concentrated and that he may be pretending to be riding something other than a bicycle maybe a motorcycle

0:03-0:04 the video then cuts to showing the boy’s back riding the bike down the middle of the street and we can see another boy’s elbow who is also riding a bike on the side of the screen. this shows that the boy and his friends are riding around having fun

0:06 the video cuts again and shows the same bike and the boys feet peddling the bike this time we see a crate in the front of the bike, we could make the assumption that it is being used to hold something. in the crate, we can see something white maybe newspapers?

0:07-0:08 panning a side view of the boy on the bike we see that he appears to be older than he was in the last segment. then a cut to the crate on the front of the bike and we see newspapers and the boy grabbing one of the papers. which shows us that he is a delivery boy

0:11-0:12 the next scene we see is the same bike with the boy older, he is riding up to a house that and he drops and leaves the bike outside. when he gets off the bike we see that he is holding flowers because of this maybe he is at his crush’s house and is stopping by to make an impression

0:13 then a cut the boy walking across the screen with the bike in a garage. the bike is dirty and has probably been sitting there for a while, we see the worn seat and a rag on the tire which proves that it hasn’t been ridden in a while. this is also the first scene we see the boy not riding the bike which maybe suggests that he is older now and doesn’t need a bike

0:15-0:16 we see a completely different setting showing a lady in a wheelchair with a name badge implying see is an employee. there are clothes on clothes racks in the background maybe suggesting it is a retail store. we then see her holding clipboard which could mean she is taking note of things in the store or inventory of some sort

0:17 we then follow a man down an aisle of the store, we can clearly see more clothes and labels to indicate what items are down what aisles. to the left of the man, we see an employee holding the blue bike on a table and she could be cleaning it

0:19 the image cuts to the employee with the bike and we see she is cleaning the bike with rag we can then assume that the bike is being resold at the store which we could assume it is some sort of thrift shop because we know the bike was previously owned by the boy.

Visual Rhetoric-pATricKStar123

 

0:00-0:01 The ad opens up with a scene of a beautiful nature scene. You are looking over some type of hill/ mountain.

0:01-0:03 next we see a rabbit running seems excited/desperate. the scene opens up to see a garden with a scarecrow and plentiful crops.

0:04-0:05 following this we see the rabbit run from up close after a while he stops. we can see that her is facing the viewer and has his hand in almost a welcoming state. he is standing in the garden because we can see the crops and lettuce. the rabbit waves to come as he walks away toward the garden. It seems he was asking the deer to come.

0:06-0:11 The scene opens up to see a variety of animals coming through the gate of the garden many of which are walking like humans. the animal that come in were pigs, squirrels, and other rabbits. these animals start to pick out these crops from the ground. some of the rabbits start to eat the crops and these vegetation seems fresh.

0:12-0:15 the animals are delighted dancing in the food.

0:18-0:22 a phrase pops up on the screen cook it, store it, share it. the words just don’t waste it pop up as the rabbits are excitingly throwing up the food in the air. i believe it could be saying don’t be wasteful like them in this image.

0:23- 0:25 next we see one rabbit walk into what could be his home with a huge amount of crops in his hands. the rabbit drops the food into the floor to share with four other rabbits.

0:25-0:35 the words better ate then never appear on the screen. i believe that this ad is telling us just that in America well as other countries we waste so much food because of the fact we can. with hundreds of thousands homeless and hungry, we are taking from the fact we could be helping these people. From an audience point of view this ad seemed too playful to inspire. many people would just think this was a cute ad but not really impact.

 

Visual Rewrite- DudeInTheBack

Second: 00:01

This video begins with a middle aged woman climbing up what I assume to be a mountain full of tobacco. It is brown, and detailed with lumps of tobacco all over. This could be a visual metaphor for overcoming tobacco use, since she is on her way to the top of the mountain of tobacco. Since this is an Ad for lung cancer screenings, and tobacco is usually associated with lung cancer, the metaphor could also mean that getting a lung cancer screening is the first step to overcoming tobacco use. The shot is very far out and It definitely was not shot on an actual mound of tobacco. It looks photo shopped,  and almost cartoonish.

At first glimpse, to start out a video with a woman climbing up a mountain makes me want to keep watching the video to see why she is doing it, or what she is doing. The Photoshop job looks very fake, and you can tell that it is not real. The shot kind of gives a cartoonish look, since she is oddly proportioned on the mountain. You would think she would be much smaller, since the shot of the mountains so far back. The mountain looks huge.

00:02

The video only shows the woman taking two steps on the mountain as she reaches to the top. What they failed to include was how she got on this mountain. Oddly placing her about 78% up the mountain. The viewer can assume that she climbed up the mountain base before the camera started rolling, rather than her randomly falling onto the top, or jumping up there. The woman gets on top with long strides, and looks like she is putting in some effort. This could add to the metaphoric meaning behind the video of overcoming tobacco as hard.

Luckily, since the camera view is far out, we can see some of the background which seems to be other piles, or mounds of presumably tobacco. This gives the viewer a sense of the environment she is in, and he depth of the shot. the sky is very foggy, which gives the atmosphere a dirty look. This is definitely what the director/editor of the video wanted to make it seem like. Having the fog represents smoke, portraying the image of what your lungs will have in it from smoking tobacco.

00:03

As the camera pans out, the shot moves farther, and farther away from the woman. This shot fully shows the depth of the setting, and how big the mound is. As I look closer into the mounds, It looks more like a pile of cigarettes, rather than tobacco. The editor of the video should have made the animation clearer on the mountain to make viewers not second guess their analysis. The woman is smiling, assuring the viewer that once you are at the top, the struggle, and hardship is over. The top of the mountain could represent the ling cancer screening, or overcoming tobacco use.

The message is unclear of why she is climbing the mountain. It obviously is a metaphor though, since this is a very metaphorical situation. I don’t believe their to be any actual mounds, let alone mountains of cigarettes anywhere in real life.

00:04 – 00:07

The video ends with a visual of the lung screener, along with the company’s website, associations, and sponsors. The main point of the ad is to promote their company, and this is made very clear by after showing the cool visual, they transition to a magazine picturesque visual.

The background is all white, making sure there is no background distraction from the important information. This use of a white background, and basic add quality gives this ending proof of the main reason for this commercial; to promote their company’s lung screening. What makes this feel more like an ad, and rather than a short film, is the popping up of the “Ad Council” logo in the bottom right corner appearing at the last second.

 

Visual Rhetoric-Dohertyk9

0:01: The scene instantly transforms from a black screen to an aerial view (possibly taken by a drone?) of what could be considered the ideal countryside; to a view of very lush green fields, trees, a broad river cutting through, and a hazy gray sky. The land appears to have been altered slightly for human use, possibly for farms, possibly for a pasture for animals.  Large swaths of land have been cut out for use.

This cuts out and is overlapped by an image of a rabbit. The rabbit looks animated, not realistic, and wears a blue collared shirt. It is running from side to side up what appears to be a steep hill. As in the previous picture, perhaps even more so, the grass is a very bright, lush green. No word better describes the scene than “verdant”.

The author’s purpose is very difficult to decipher from this first frame. The potential purpose could be:

  • to protest animal cruelty
  • to promote a wildlife reserve
  • to protest for nature conservation
  • to outline the beauty of nature and promote respect for nature
  • to promote recycling
  • to promote a particular area for travel
  • to promote an airline or helicopter ride
  • to promote a brand of gardening equipment or seeds
  • to promote gardening/home grown food
  • to promote a certain pesticide OR to protest the use of pesticides
  • to promote a brand of lawnmower or earth-moving tool
  • to protest animal captivity
  • to promote an area to live in/housing in a particular area
  • to promote nationalism for a particular country-or peace in wartime(?)/anti-war
  • to promote hunting OR to humanize animals by dressing them like humans to paint how horrific it is to hunt them (protest hunting animals)
  • to promote a brand of laundry detergent by showing that even after running through the hills and horribly staining the shirt, the rabbit will still be able to get out the tough stains
  • a perfume commercial for the “smell of the mountains”
  • to promote the theory of evolution because even rabbits will one day become sophisticated enough to wear shirts
  • to promote camping
  • to promote hiking
  • Et cetera.

0:02: It becomes clear that the rabbit is running over hills to get to his destination.

0:03: The scene changes yet again, to display a garden. A rabbit is running along a path through the garden. It is clear that it was meant to be a garden because of the rows of crops and sunflowers. Also, the fence surrounding the area and the sticks with the shirt over them (likely an attempt at a scarecrow) gives it the appearance of warding off predators and protecting the plants. Also, the rabbit in this scene is not wearing a shirt.

0:04: The view zooms in again on the rabbit, this time very close so that you can see his feet making an impact on the ground as he runs. This is perhaps to show that he is running very quickly.

0:05: The viewpoint shifts yet again to show the rabbit with the blue shirt. It appears as though he is waiting for the other rabbit. He is smiling, gesturing for the other rabbit to follow by waving his arm forward.

0:06: The viewpoint changes to show two elks(?) who are looking very purposefully in one direction. The grass is very tall there and reaches the elks’ waists. The area that the elks are looking at is quite the opposite; it appears to be well maintained and is bordered by buildings, possibly houses. The elks share a look that seems to imply a mutual curiosity.

0:07: The gates of (likely) the same garden as earlier are opened and a hoard of different types of animals are pouring through. Most notably, almost all of these animals are wearing some sort of clothes on the top half of their bodies. The pig even appears to be wearing a purple suit jacket. All of the animals seem to be very pleased.

0:08: There is a close-up of a furry hand (likely a rabbit’s) pulling a carrot from the ground.

0:09: Another hand pulls a different crop out of the ground.

0:10: A rabbit wearing a red top with a black collar is smiling as he throws cucumbers to a rabbit that is mostly out of view.

0:11: The same rabbit in the red top is sitting against a row of crops next to another rabbit with an unbuttoned blue/green collared button-down shirt. The rabbit in the red is smelling a carrot, presumably in the manner that a person would smell a delicious-looking meal. The other rabbit is already biting into another vegetable.

0:12: The rabbit in the red top bites down on the carrot enthusiastically. The two rabbits then share a glance, happily chewing their food.

0:13-0:14: The rabbit in the red is now lying next to a different rabbit, this one wearing a tied yellow shirt. Both of the rabbits have jovial expressions as they make snow angels in piles of some sort of vegetable.

0:15: All of the rabbits are lined up in a conga line, lifting their feet in sync as they happily dance.

0:16: Something is thrown at the rabbits as they move forward in the conga line.

0:17: The scene shifts to a white background, where three rabbits with no clothes are huddled around a pile of vegetables.

0:18: One of the rabbits jumps in the air, throwing the vegetables like confetti. Another of the rabbits follows suit, while the third rabbit watches. The words “Cook it” appear behind the rabbits.

0:19: The words “Store it” appear underneath the words “Cook it”. Finally, the words “Share it” appear beneath the “Store it”. The rabbits in the scene pick up more vegetables from the pile on the floor.

0:20: The words “Just don’t waste it.” replace the other words in the background. The rabbits continue celebrating the raining food in the air.

0:21: Three different rabbits, one in red, one in yellow, and one in green, are leaning in towards the viewer. The scene has changed again and the background is tall grass and plants surrounding a bridge. The rabbits are frowning, as in confusion.

0:22: The rabbits’ expressions change, suddenly lighting up.

0:23: The scene changes again to show a rabbit hole with light pouring in from the entrance. On the right of the scene is a table with presumably salt and pepper shakers on top, as well as a tea kettle. In the center of the scene is a rabbit with an armload of vegetables. Two rabbits are watching from the side with enthusiasm and perked ears. The rabbit carrying the vegetables throws them in the air. The camera reveals two more rabbits, four in total, that struggle to pick up the vegetables as they look at the rabbit that had been carrying them with confusion/disbelief.

0:24: The rabbit with the blue shirt is viewed from below as he jumps off of a stand containing a tall crop. Three rabbits from below look up with surprise. The words, “better ate than never” appear at the bottom of the screen.

0:25: The rabbit in the blue shirt is caught by the rabbits below. All of the rabbits look at the viewer directly and smile.

0:26-0:35: The screen changes to reveal “savethefood.com”, the AdCouncil logo, the NRDC logo, and stacked jars of food.