(Click on link above to get to advertisemnt picture)
I choose this PETA advertisement about animal cruelty in McDonald’s because everyone is familiar with the McDonald’s franchise. Almost everyone knows what a Big Mac is or has had a happy meal once in their life. When we were children we all wanted to go to McDonald’s and get a happy meal so we could get the free toy inside. Or we enjoyed playing in the McDonald’s play area which included a giant pit of multi colored balls. What many people don’t realize is the animal cruelty that goes along with the food production of the corporation. PETA, who is generally known as having controversial ads, does a great job of marketing in this particular advertisement against McDonald’s. They put a play on McDonald’s famous line, “I’m lovin’ it,” by changing the words to, “I’m hatin’ it McCruelty.” Not only does this help catch the reader’s attention but it also helps define the interactive and represented participants. The represented participants are the McDonald’s corporation and PETA. Both these parties have different views, McDonald’s believes that their food is superior and PETA believes that the food production is horrific and people should stop supporting the franchises’ cause by not purchasing the food. The interactive participants are the people who view the ad, people like you and me. After viewing the ad, I believe that modality plays an important role in helping people understand and internalize the meaning behind PETA’s efforts here. Modality can be defined as the truth in the picture/sign as it relates to color saturation or uses of images. What first stood out in this image are the trademark colors of McDonald’s, red and yellow. Also the trademark golden arches with an upside down chicken hanging from beneath it. This use of modality truly helped me make sense of the ad and understand its cause. Next, I would classify this ad as an icon, index and symbol. I believe it to be an icon because it looks like a real McDonald’s ad by having the trademark arches and colors. This helps make the images relate back to its internal meaning as being against McDonald’s. Also I have classified the ad as an index because of the upside down chicken and the direction it is pointing. Because it is upside down it helps show that there is some animal cruelty involved. I have also classified this ad as a symbol because it closely resembles the meaning behind it, which is a mock ad against McDonald’s. Furthermore, this ad brings up many controversial issues that we have in society today. Some of these issues bring up controversial questions that include but not limited too. Is there a problem with animal cruelty and production? Does McDonald’s have a greater problem than just animal cruelty, which is providing our nation the means of becoming obese? What steps can we take to stop animal cruelty all together? This ad tries to control social behavior by being bold and smart. They try to catch people’s attention and get them to change their ways. Finally, in choosing this week’s ad for this assignment I wanted to pick an ad that had meaning and a stance behind it. I didn’t want to choose something that just had some boring meaning behind it. I wanted to pick something that was controversial and offered many different viewpoints and interactions among people in our class. That is why I choose PETA; they do a very good job at being controversial and right up in your face. And finally I choose McDonald’s because everyone knows about it and it is a part of your life whether you like it or not.
A very cool advertisement pick for this assignment. PETA comes up with some very creative ads and this is one of of them. I do agree that this is a symbol, index and icon because there are many levels of complexity to this picture that each show different meanings on how PETA wanted people to interpret their controversial message.
What is interesting about this ad, too, is that modality, at least in terms of realism, is created by the words themselves. The words, in other words, paint a picture that makes me the viewer believe the charge being brought against them by PETA is true. This ad would be very fun to perform a rhetorical analysis of, using the handout I gave you in class. It also raises many important inquiries, as you note, that could be further explored. Laurie