Dr. Heather Hill-Vásquez, Department of English, University of Detroit Mercy

 

Ad Unit Essay Assignment - Sample Argument Paragraphs

 

A full-color magazine ad for Marlboro cigarettes from 1972 demonstrates America's fascination with the American cowboy in the 1960s and 1970s. A contemporary cigarette ad (2000) for Newports shows a different type of man, more sensitive and attentive to the woman also portrayed in the ad which shows that now Americans have a different idea of what makes a good man. Since America was experiencing the Vietnam war and other frightening events during the late 1960s and into the 1970s, it was still attracted mostly to tough, masculine images but since we are now in a time of relative peace, men are now not so narrowly defined. Gender characteristics have become more flexible and, as the Newport ad shows, it is also okay for women to be more active and tough and for men to be more sensitive and caring. This seems like a step in the right direction. Yet Newport is using the idea to sell cigarettes and associate an unhealthy addiction with "liberated" men and women.


My father and my mother seemed to work their entire lives for something that was impossible to get to. Other people in our neighborhood worked for the same impossible thing, the perfect family with few, if any, financial worries, with easy solutions to problems, and obedient children. The floors were always clean because Mom had time to clean them. There were never any pressures of time. The Maytag ad from 1971 works with this idea of saving time but also keeping up with the neighbors by having enough money for modern conveniences. Today, as in an ad for a Sony flat television system, the message is that only people with enough money, time, and status can have the "perfect" family (and maybe only people with maids, butlers, and cooks). Everyone, like in the Sony ad, has to be stylish and display appropriate status symbols. Whereas in 1971 when the Maytag ad was made, the perfect family required all the modern conveniences in order to acheive clean and smiling faces, today's ads show that perfection means style, class, and sophistication for all members of the family through the most up-to-date technological products like the Sony flat television system. It's up to everyone, not just Mom to show people how perfect the family is through the fancy products they use and buy. It seems that the American family has more and more become a front for those who actually buy things or have other people do things for them in order to acheive what the normal or perfect American family is supposed to look like. The definition of the perfect American family is still all about competing with the neighbors and status symbols but now it's up to the entire family instead of just Mom to show how perfect each family is.

 

ENL 131 Syllabus

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Looking at Advertising