TOW #13: Visual Text (Beyoncé Pepsi Commercial)

PepsiCo is no stranger to celebrity endorsement. From Michael Jackson's in 1984 to Britney Spears's in 2001, many Pepsi commercials have featured pop culture icons. One of the most recent in the lineup, Beyoncé's Pepsi commercial aired in April of 2013.

The advertisement features a present-day Beyoncé Knowles in the middle of a set of mirrors. She drinks a Pepsi, and each mirror suddenly contains a younger Beyoncé from earlier in her music career. The personas reach as far back as 2001; Pepsi recreated her pink costume from the Destiny's Child "Bootylicious" music video, before she was even a solo artist. They all dance to a song that at the time had yet to be released, culminating with Beyoncé breaking away from her past selves and drinking a Pepsi. The slogan "Live For Now" is displayed on the screen and a voiceover states, "Embrace your past, but live for now."

The commercial relies heavily on the audience members' cultural knowledge; they must realize that Beyoncé is confronting past versions of herself, or else the advertisement makes little sense. Luckily, Beyoncé is popular enough that the average American would recognize her and make the necessary connection to the slogan. Even if they didn't, however, the commercial would still be effective due to the entertainment value of the singing, dancing, and animation.

I think the commercial was most likely successful in fulfilling its purpose of selling Pepsi products. PepsiCo was wise to choose Beyoncé as its spokesperson, since she is about as popular today as Michael Jackson was in 1984. Prior to this commercial, Pepsi sent her to perform at the Superbowl to put her back in the public eye despite being between album releases. The fact that the commercial features an unreleased song creates even more talk about Beyoncé and the commercial, thus making it more well-known and more likely to sell its product.

TOW #12: IRB (I Am Malala)

An activist for education and women's rights, Malala Yousafzai has run a blog for the BBC, starred in a New York Times documentary about Pakistan, and been nominated for the International Children's Peace Prize. Only fifteen years old, she was shot in the head and neck by the Taliban in October 2012. She survived the assassination attempt and became even more successful; she was named one of Time's "100 Most Influential People in the World" and nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. With help from Oxford-educated British journalist Christina Lamb, Yousafzai wrote I Am Malala as equal parts autobiography and memoir.

The best parts, in my opinion, are when Yousafzai uses anecdotes to let the reader know what her life really feels like. Even when not much is occurring, the writing becomes more detailed and relatable when Yousafzai writes a first-hand account. For example, she writes, "That morning we arived in the narrow mud lane off Haji Baba Road in our usual procession of brightly painted rickshaws, sputtering diesel fumes, each one crammed with five or six girls" (3). Because she experienced this herself, Yousafzai is able to convey the event better than if she had simply researched it. The anecdotes often include imagery and sensory details that allow the reader to imagine the smell of diesel fuel or the sight of the brightly colored rickshaws.

Although the autobiographical information is interesting, Yousafzai (likely with some prodding from Lamb) sometimes gives a lot of information that I, as a reader of a book about Malala Yousafzai, do not find necessary. She dedicates a large section to her father's background and beliefs; the information seems both impersonal and slightly irrelevant. (After all, the book is not called I Am Ziauddin.) I realize that Yousafzai and Lamb are trying to inform readers, but unless this information becomes necessary later, I feel like it was distracting and forced. Other than that complaint, the book is generally well-written and the authors are so far entertaining and informing me in the way that they wanted.

Malala's School

Included in I Am Malala

TOW #11: Article (Catch a Cold, Go to Prison: The Recidivism Debate)

"Catch a Cold, Go to Prison: The Recidivism Debate" appeared on the Los Angeles Times website on November 26, claiming to have been written by "The Times editorial board." Because I do not live in California (as most of the Times' readers do) I was previously unaware of the problem of high recidivism in the Californian criminal justice system. Recidivism is the rate at which previously paroled prisoners partake in additional illegal activity. Attorney general Kamala Harris recently opened a division to reduce California recidivism rates, an action which the authors say was pointless and unnecessary.

The article's main rhetorical strategy is to define the word "recidivism." By defining the subject, the Times editors can make their argument seem more relevant and accurate based on the descriptions that they themselves gave. "Because 'recidivism' has so many different meanings [...] it has no meaning at all," the authors write. "Clearer language is needed to produce clearer results." The topic can be spun many different ways based on how one describes it, a fact that the authors cleverly noticed and effectively used to make theirs appear to be the only rational argument.

The definition is given through a comparison of two people: a man who missed a probation appointment after being paroled, and a cancer patient who developed a cold. You would not say that the cancer patient relapsed, the authors reasoned. Similarly, missing one appointment should not mean the criminal "relapsed," as is implied with the current, broad definition of recidivism. Juxtaposing these two people led the audience down a logical path: if the cancer patient did not relapse, and the criminal is in a very similar situation, then it holds that the criminal did not relapse, either. This current miscategorization drives up recidivism measurements.  "When technical parole violations are stripped out and the measure of recidivism is a new crime with a new arrest and a new conviction," the authors argue, "California's recidivism rate is [...]  just about the same as most other states." This logical argument was strong and seemingly effective at persuading the audience that Californian recidivism is not as urgent as it appears from the measurements.

CA Attorney General Kamala Harris