Starbucks

How does someone sell their products? How do their products “speak to us” in a way that will persuade us to buy their products? Starbucks, for example, can come off as overpriced and overdone. However, everyday thousands of people flock to this coffee house to buy their famous beverages. Why, especially as broke college students, is this the case?

First off, the atmosphere itself creates the allusion that we are in a completely different environment from the outside world. Starbucks has discovered the importance of location. Upon entering their doors, a cozy feeling is portrayed through warm colors, cheerful signs and a place to sit back and relax in almost every corner. Many escape to this place as a sanctuary; a place to study, socialize, or just grab a coffee and some quiet time.

But what makes so many choose this coffee house over their competing counterpart Dunkin? Many fast food places create a rigid environment to promote the flow of customers in and out of their stores. McDonalds’ interior design is made up of bright colors, plastic chairs and desks, and white walls that do not exactly invite consumers to stay around longer than their meal. Starbucks, on the other hand, created soft features all around, avoiding sharp corners or hard surfaces, to relax the customers. It promotes the feeling of a “second home” where one may sip on a latte for hours while working on their laptops. Starbucks senior vice president has compared Starbucks to that of a modern bookstore setting, this promoting long-term relationships with the people.

Basically, Starbucks could pass for a bookstore-just without so many books. They sell an array of decorations, mugs, how-to books, CD’s, and much more. It is easy to get absorbed in the mixture of all these items while mulling over what beverage to order. The beverages might raise some flags as to how pricey they are, but who can resist the European and exotic names dedicated to these beverages? I know for a fact many people order a grande caramel macchoiato or any other foreign termed coffe without actually knowing what it is. Why? To try something different. I think in the comfort of its setting people feel like they can take risks by trying new things. With all of these medians working together, Starbucks has created its own culture that is rapidly spreading to all over the word, thanks to its genius use of rhetoric in its presentation.

Stop and Think

Advertisements can be very effective; however, it is hard to find that medium where it is not too controversial, and not too mundane to lose the onlookers interest.  Excluding words, and relying on only visual text to convey a meaning, can be very risky. An image is man-made; the meaning we associate with an image depends on our background, the context in which we see it, and many more factors. However, loading an image with too many words can be distracting. So where is the medium?

I came across this image the other day. I found it very influential. My eyes first were drawn to the “human pill.” They then wandered over to the biggest text, “Rx Drug ads on T.V.-Educational or influential?” I then skimmed over the smaller text underneath before looking back to the image. The second time I looked at the image I saw a more literal meaning of the message they were trying to convey. In our consumer society, people will always try to sell you their products from left and right, no matter the damage it does to our bodies. We judge people by their activities. When we see someone dependant on pills, we see them as just a pill popper. 

This advertisement uses the rhetorical device of pathos in a clever manner. We can see a person that no longer can identify themselves, for they have been consumed by drugs.  We associate this image with how we view drug addicts, thus creating a feeling of uneasiness and aversion towards Rx Drugs in general. This image is challenging the dependability of what we hear and see, which is a serious problem in society. Today, most people watch reality shows over picking up a newspaper. The amount of junk smashed in commercials between breaks is enough to rot our brains. This ad implores us to not only stray away from drugs, but to continue to make our own decisions.  If the image itself is not enough, the text in red sends us into a state of uneasiness.  The creator decided to use a minimal amount of color so that we are forced to focus on the text in front of us. The only thing that varies is the font size. As it becomes smaller and smaller, it causes to follow the readings in chronological order, as if it was a short story. The author has created a story between images and words that drive home a powerful message that would have been difficult to achive without the use of both forms of rhetoric.

What's Your Deal, Santorum?

If you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all, right? Well in the real world does not work like that. Debates would not exist if that were the case. However, there are guidelines and rules that we as citizens should follow in order to fulfill an ethical debate. Rick Santorum is renowned for breaking this contract.  When one enters a political debate, sensitive topics arise quite often, and must be treated with care. I like to think of Rick Santorum as a bull in a china shop when it comes to dealing with sensitive topics.

His recent take on birth control did not win him much support from the feminine side of the camp. He carelessly said to his opponent, “One of the things I will talk about, that no president has talked about before, is, I think, the dangers of contraception in this country. . . . Many of the Christian faith have said, well, that’s okay, contraception is okay. It’s not okay. It’s a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.” All in all, he is opposed to birth control. After numerous waves of feminism and women finally earning the right to vote and gain control over their bodies, I am not quite sure how Santorum thinks that he will persuade people to take away their freedoms.

When people opposed his stance, or even questioned it, he would rudely talk over them, or completely ignore their questions and switch over to a different question. He ignores the rules of engagement of a political debate, by neither engaging with civility or respect towards his opponents. He expresses his values, but perhaps in the wrong manner. By stating his ideas as though they are factual, and not personal, he ends up taking away from his credibility. Politicians forget to convey ethos and pathos often, and rely solely on logos.  They think in terms of ballots, and not the civility of engagements and the moral obligations as citizens they are expected to fulfill.

Would Santorum, if elected president, try to outlaw birth control? The probabilities are low. However, his unethical approach concerns many that his efforts on the state level to outlaw birth control, and the kinds of federal judges that President Santorum  would appoint, to the Supreme Court and other federal courts make people very uneasy. If we were to vote for someone that believes that states have the right to pass laws which violate the federal constitution, on cases that relate to reproductive rights and gender equality,  then we would virtually be taking a step back in progression. Opinions are not facts. Values are not set forth by one’s personal opinion which many do not share, and credibility lacks when, like Santorum who later said that banning contraception was just a personal opinion, politicians and others contradict their points.

Spring Break

Let’s face it. Before we go on any vacations, whether it is winter or summer break, we see warnings all over campus to act responsibly. However, there is some implication that spring break is at least ten times more dangerous, and more posters warning us all over campus will discourage us from engaging in irresponsible activities. Why is it that the commonplace of reckless behavior being so prominent during spring break has become so engraved in our culture?  Perhaps it’s the movies thast show off unrealistic scenarios where people go wild, and there are no consequences. However, when students see this, then all the “don’t let it be you” signs egging them on, these warning posters seem to have an opposite effect.  

MTV.com

The point of this post is not to imply that the concept of Spring Break is really just an overrated hype up to get people to blow money;  what people opt to do on Spring Break is overrated. Some people prefer to come home during  this week  to visit their families and friends. Though, there are others who choose to got to Panama City, Cancun, or Jamaica, because of reality shows. After midterms, we all want to blow off steam. Making ourselves feel as though we are playing a role as those crazy movie stars, so many people convince themselves that they are really relaxing. Thousands of dollars later, bad choices, and perhaps many under ages, people come back and spread stories that their time was “great.” I love to travel, but I also like to remember my vacations. My dream is not to play a character of The Hangover. My dream is to have a good time, but not live up to the typical classification of a reckless college student. I feel as if people would stop the warning, perhaps the hypes would simmer down. Students should still be warned, but too much emphasis can have opposite effects from the intended message.