Assignment 10

Assignment 10

Questions

·        Why does she specifically use the theoretical frameworks of Maurice Charland, Robert Goldman, and Walter Benjamin to analyze the Macintosh Ad?

·        How does Stein explain the use of constitutive rhetoric in her analysis?

·        Why does Stein constantly write about extreme/advanced capitalism?

For example, on page 297, she wrote, “She equally represents a political figure, one aware of the repressive powers of advanced capitalism and willing to use revolutionary tactics in response.”

·        Is she relating the woman in the commercial to Winston in George Orwell’s 1984 novel?

Summary

               The “1984” Macintosh Ad: Cinematic Icons and Constitutive Rhetoric in the Launch of a New Machine by Sarah R. Stein is an extensive critical examination of the Macintosh Ad. In this extensive critical examination she gives a description of the commercial, writes about the theoretical frameworks that describes the content of the commercial more thoroughly, provides a rhetorical history of the Macintosh, describes the rhetorical context of the time the “1984” advertisement was released, and gives her final analysis and conclusion. The final analysis and conclusion sum up everything she already wrote about in her essay and gives an insight into her personal opinions.

Questions

1. Why do you think Stein might have wanted to research and write this essay?

Stein wrote this essay because the Macintosh Ad had never been subjected to such extensive critical examination before and she felt it needed to be.  Also, she was a great resource for academics like us to go to for information at the time this essay was written. Unlike now, the internet was not as great of a resource for researching as it is today. Additionally, she wanted to study the effects society and advertising have on each other. Stein wanted to know whether society was the independent variable or dependent variable.

2. What do you think she might have hoped readers would feel, think, or do while and after reading it?

I think Stein expects and hopes that anybody who reads her essay will be appreciative of the in depth analysis of the advertisement. The ad has been admired ever since it came out, but until Stein wrote this essay it was never criticized. Her criticism of the Mac ad allows for a better critical interpretation.

Personally, I really enjoyed her comparison between the Mac Ad and Blade Runner, the Wizard of Oz, the Terminator, Metropolis, and of course George Orwell’s 1984 novel. These comparisons gave me a better understanding of the Mac ad and her essay.

This excerpt from her essay led me to my answers for the previous questions: Although the “1984” ad has been the subject of ongoing popular media attention, it has not been subjected to extensive critical examination. It’s standing as a rhetorical text of enduring power and status warrants a closer look at its internal dynamics as well as its cultural impact, and criticism provides the means by which this may be accomplished. In examining this text for its complex interweaving of ideologies and cinematic icons that elevated the cold rationality of a machine into the realm of fantasy and the mythic, this essay contributes to an understanding of the integral role ads play in contributing to and drawing on ideological and cultural discourse.