TOW #10: AT&T "Cutest Grape" Commercial (Visual)

Children are our future, but are they also the future of advertising? AT&T harnesses the cuteness of little children to advertise many different aspects of its company.  Recently, AT&T has been airing multiple of these adorable ads. They begin with an interviewer asking a group of four young children a question. In this commercial in particular the question asked was, “why is it better to get what you want now instead of later?”. In reply, a little girl says the phrase: “you don’t want to wait to eat your raisins because they’ll turn into grapes”. The commercial finished by stating that “now is better” and that AT&T is now the fastest and most reliable 4g LTE network.

AT&T targets adults and anyone in search of a new wireless network through this commercial. Their purpose is to create a memorable advertisement that would stick in the minds of viewers in order to promote its own networking company. By adding the young children into the commercials, AT&T is able to successfully appeal to pathos. By first interviewing the kids and then turning what they say into an advertisement, the company can proudly display their masterpiece of manipulation. These clever and lovable kids, just like the ones in the Cutest Grape ad, draw attention to the AT&T Company and help create sales. Also, the children often add naive humor that also grabs viewer’s attention. For example, when asked what place she is in for the competition of cutest kid, the same little girl that mentioned the grapes responded that she was in kindergarten. How could anyone ignore something that adorable?

I personally believe that AT&T successfully fulfilled their purpose of making a memorable advertisement in order to promote their company. These ads are one of my favorites that are currently airing.  Although I do not use AT&T, nor do I plan on changing my wireless provider (not like that was my decision in the first place), I still found this commercial adorable and unforgettable. No one can ignore these adorable children.

TOW #9: Let Go of the College Essay, and Let Your Teenager Speak for Herself by Lacy Crawford

            With SAT’s nearly a month away and the college application process creeping closer and closer, my only thought is HELP!  With a few clicks, I soon found myself looking at articles on the New York Times website about applying to colleges.  The article Let Go of the College Essay, and Let Your Teenager Speak for Herself by Lacy Crawford jumped out at me. Intrigued, I began to read this article and soon learned that it was not written for the overwhelmed high schooler, but for his or her over-protective parental unit.  You see, Crawford wrote this article in order to tell parents that they cannot help their child write their college essay. In the end, only their student can truly tell their own story.

        Crawford starts with a personal anecdote about a father who asked her if she could write his sons college essay for him. She declined his offer, but she helped his son by taking him on a walk and having him talk about himself.  She continues by comparing how kids might answer certain questions and how their answers affect a colleges view on them as a person. For example, “it is the difference between the young man who writes, ‘I understand suffering because I’ve watched my dad live with a chronic illness and nothing in my life has ever been that difficult,’ and the one who writes, ‘Seeing my dad in pain was devastating for me. And also inspiring.  It’s why I’ve taken AP Bio and Chem, and why I’m hoping to be pre-med’”. Crawford uses this example to show how only the student can truly answer the college essay in order to make it personal like colleges hope they will be.

            But, it is the way Crawford ends her article that really drives home her purpose.  She answers the question that all parent readers’ want answered: so what can a parent do?  Her response is simple; tell your child what you admire about him or her, because in the end, their student is the only one who can tell the story of themself.

http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/15/let-go-of-the-college-essay-and-let-your-teenager-speak-for-herself/?ref=admissions&_r=0

IRB Post 2: The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

            A new marking period means a new IRB book, and for this marking period I have chosen to read the memoir, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls.  The book is about the author’s struggles growing up and how all the children in her family were forced to learn how to take care of themselves due to their father’s drinking problem and their mother’s lack of responsibility towards raising a family.  After hearing endless compliments towards this non-fiction book, I thought it was time to see for myself what made this book so memorable.  Also, this memoir is a New York Times best seller, which made it even more appealing to me. I hope to gain a new understanding of what it would be like to have to raise oneself. I can not wait to drive into to this unique view of life.

TOW #8: What Teachers Make by Taylor Mali (IRB post)

What do teachers make? The simple question that turned Taylor Mali’s world upside-down. Mali was asked this question by a lawyer at a dinner party and they answer he gave changed his whole life. You see, Mali didn’t answer the lawyer’s question that night, but the next day through a poem. This poem later lead the author to write the book, “What Teachers Make”, which is described as “praise to the greatest job in the world”.  After reading the first haft of this book, I was able to learn more about Mali’s life as a teacher and how certain memories from his teaching career influenced different lines in his poem. But upon completing the book, I was able to truly understand why Mali loves what he does.

Mali wrote this book with the intention of showing his readers what teachers truly make. He hoped that his poem and book would be able to appeal to all; teachers, students, parents, and basically anyone who has ever been affected by a teacher.  Mali even adds information about his personal goal for the poem/book. His goal is to have his pieces create one thousand new teachers.

By using the memories he has from teaching, Mali is able to support his overall purpose of showing his readers what teachers make.  Each of his memories emphasizes a different event that has made teaching so special for him. One memory in particular that Mali used that really stood out to me was when he said that once he reaches his goal in the quest for one thousand teachers he would donate his hair. This is because while he was teaching at an all boys’ school, he found out that one of his students had cancer. As a treatment, Mali’s student, Tony, had to go through chemotherapy that caused him to lose all his hair. The other twelve boys in his class shaved their heads in solidarity of Tony. Mali describes this memory as a “beautiful sight”.  I believe that this moment not only helped Mali prove his purpose of what teachers make, but also helped him see the difference students can make in a teacher’s life.

So what do teachers make?

Teachers make a difference.