Sample written task 2 Question 5 (ACLU)

Outline

Prescribed question:“How does the text conform to, or deviate from, the conventions of a particular genre, and for what purpose?”

Title of text for analysis:The Man on the Left

Part of the course to which the task refers: Part 2 – Language and mass communication

My critical response will:

• Explain how the ad breaks the conventions of advertising by using the form of a wanted poster.
• Explain the effects of using the wanted poster and the images of Charles Manson and Martin Luther King on its audience.
• Show how the ad uses other devices, such as juxtaposition and celebrities to meet its aim of convincing Americans to care more about racial profiling.

Written task 2

“The man on the left is 75 times more likely to be stopped by the police while driving than the man on the right”, says the headline on ACLU’s new poster featuring the famous human rights activist, Martin Luther King Jr. on the left. On the right, the famous American criminal, Charles Manson is portrayed. This public service announcement looks more like a wanted poster than a conventional advertisement. The creators of the ad deviated from, and conformed to the conventions of advertising in various ways in order to attract more attention to this announcement that promotes racial equality.

Starting from what is obvious, the ad, with its bold headline, pictures in the middle, and details in small letters under them, looks like a wanted poster, instead of a regular ad. Wanted posters were used in the Wild West to attract public attention to a notorious villain, and therefore are considered a sign of danger. They are very quickly spotted and in that way are capable of sending a quick message very effectively. Hence, they are a good basis for a public service announcement. Another way this announcement deviates from the genre is that there’s no product name, or signature anywhere. In advertising, repeating the product name, having a small picture of the product, called a signature, in the bottom, and having a good catchphrase is part of ‘branding’, and it is used to persuade people into associating the product/service/idea with certain desired qualities. In this case, the name of the brand is much less important than the idea trying to be conveyed, so this ad only features the name of the organization that created this ad in small letters on the bottom of the page.

Although this ad doesn’t strictly follow the conventions of advertising, it features some of the traits carried by conventional advertisements. Just as advertisements have big pictures of the product, and a headline, the two large pictures of Martin Luther King and Charles Manson, and the big, bolded headline are letting the public know that we all must stop racial biasing in order to make this world a more just place. This was apparently a very serious matter in the United States at the time this ad came out. Executive Director of the ACLU – Ira Glasser, said that "Racial bias is a persistent and pernicious threat to democracy in this country, and nowhere is that more evident than in the retirement of people of color by law enforcement and the criminal justice system.”

The use of celebrities is also crucial to the message conveyed, because the main logic mechanism behind the poster is Marin Luther’s and Charles Manson’s skin colors versus deeds. Putting these two characters, one good, one bad, together, demonstrates juxtaposition, which helps the message be really potential. The most important thing this ad shares with other good ads is that it is unusual. In order to be effective, any form of media has to inspire certain feelings within an individual, like happiness, sadness, guilt, envy, etc. In this case, the author toys with the beholders emotions by inspiring collective guilt. Unusual ads are most of the time more complex than normal ones, and they can create a lot of different reactions and some even create controversy, which is also used as a tool to gain publicity. This makes people talk about the ads, extending the message from poster to word of mouth advertising. If an ad is too explicit or offending to someone, it will almost certainly get banned. However, it will still stir up commotion, and this gets its maker a lot of publicity.  Unusual ads also physically attract more attention to themselves than normal ads, possibly because they create distortion in the atmosphere of where they are placed. With this advertisement being a poster, some of the characteristic things in advertising related to audio and video, like certain visual effects we get in television commercials or using a popular song to sell your product could not have been used.

The creators of this ad deviated from the conventions of advertising in aspects that they didn’t need to cover in their case, like not having a catchy phrase to remember, or a fancy, reoccurring product name and label. They did, however conform to those same conventions in other aspects, like having an unusual ad that creates commotion, having a headline, featuring two easily recognizable faces, and finally, using stylistic devices, like juxtaposition. Through this combination, the creators were able to effectively convey their message – we must stop profiling people based on their skin color.

Works cited

“ACLU Attacks Racial Profiling With Ad Citing Dr. King And Charles Manson”, June 26^th, 2000 Issue of Jet Magazine