Sex and alchohol rhetoric presentations

Wow! Those presentations were really interesting yesterday! Sex and alcohol are always fun to discussJ I think Dana made some really good points about sexuality in advertising and the media. It seems that everything appears to have sexual undertones if it is to be considered funny these days. Considering my favorite TV series is Sex and the City, yes I own every single episode, I would be a hypocrite to say sexual jokes on television is not funny and inappropriate. I just think that if commercials and television shows are going to be filled with sexual innuendos, they need to be played later at night, not when children are just coming home from school and looking to watch TV. Like I said before, if I saw that my favorite tv stars were having sex, it made it seem like it was appropriate and the norm for someone my age. It didn’t influence me so much that I went out and forgot all my morals, but I can see how it can persuade teens to engage in sex before they are mature enough to handle it.

The presentation on rhetoric in alcohol ads was also very interesting. Seeing as we are in college and are exposed to it all the time, the kairos of her presentation was perfect. What better time to bring up the topic than when we are drinking probably the most we ever will in our lives. (Some people, that is.) Ethos was definitely established because CA is our age and it was easy to relate to her views on the ads. Pathos, no doubt, was used very effectively when we were shown the picture of the girl who was hit by the drunk driver. Up til that moment, the presentation had been pretty light hearted, but reality kicked in as soon as we saw that the ads may be contributing to our drunk drivers. I do want to point out that while alcohol ads might be tempting our younger drinkers, I think the advertising people are doing an incredibly effective job at marketing their product. Using sexuality in drinking ads is one of the best ways to go. I know this is sounding bad, but when you think about it, why do a lot of people go to bars in the first place? For many, it is to find a girlfriend, boyfriend, or one night stand. If your goal is to get laid that night, and you see that these people who are drinking these certain types of liquors are incredibly sexy and having a good time attracting the attention of the opposite sex, you are probably going to think, why not try this drink? Maybe I’ll be sexy. (And if you have been drinking already, you most likely will think you are sexy at that point, more so, than you would if you could look at yourself while you were sober.) So while it may not be politically correct or doing any good for our youth who are experimenting with alcohol, it definitely is working.