!Pod, Viagra and the Praiseworthy Life: Epideictic Rhetoric in Technology and Medical Print Advertising.

My article discussed the epidemic rhetoric in technology and advertising. It

provided information about how technology is being used as a visual advertising

mechanism to advertise and market certain products ranging from pharmaceutical drugs

to electronic devices. It focuses on how Americans use visual tactics for personal gain

and what reactions come from it. It makes the point of how these new products are shown

to us and how we always gravitate toward the coolest new technology or product that

becomes available. It also describes how Americans consume more magazines than

anything else to support the need of the utilization of advertising and marketing, so we

can see and read what has been newly produced. Magazine companies have a large target

market for the younger generation. What they have found is that young adults/students

are more likely to react to seeing the latest fashion accessory like the ipod in a magazine

rather then to actually read about it. Most of what is seen from young consumers is

looked at as being truthful and persuasive. Advertisers want to take advantage of

magazine buyers because of the high volume in magazine sales due to what young

consumers can see. They purposefully target younger buyers this way because of the

visual strategy they have. Therefore, their decision to study how aggressively student

magazine customers buy will benefit the process of how appealing technology and even

health advertising is. By conducting a study, students examined prints for pharmaceutical

and technological products in two popular magazines to discover how the visual and

verbal techniques are used as epidermic rhetoric. The outcome of these studies was shown

to be of high demand for young students to want to engage in purchasing products that

are advertised with an appealing visual concept.  

As I read the article the authors’ point was to show how modern technology uses

advertising of pharmaceutical and other technology for the benefit of the company and

not the benefit of the consumer. He showed the result of young readers is more prone to

purchase products based on the visual aspect and not so much the full understanding of it.

I completely agree with the author because of the rate technology is being advanced. I

feel as though it is all for the benefit of advertising and marketing and getting the

consumer to spend more money. They use tricky words and images to attract people and

get them to focus on getting the latest and greatest product whether for electronic use or

personal health usage. I think this article is important because it bring awareness to the

consumer and can maybe be looked at as being helpful. I hope it will show people how

materialistic Americans are and how we can sometimes be tricked into buying something

even though we may not need or can afford to purchase it. 

Reference:

Blakely, B, (August 2011). !Pod, Viagra and the Praiseworthy Life: Epideictic Rhetoric in Technology and Medical Print Advertising. The Journal of Popular Culture, Volume 44, issue 4 p. 684-703 ISSN: 0022-3840, DOI: 10.1111/j1540-5931.2011.00857.x. Blackwell Publishing Inc.