Tasks:
Your audience analysis should explain - in detail - at least 3 ways the rhetorical situation you have chosen to analyze invokes a particular audience. Be sure to consider contextual elements like media and kairos, and also think about access: who is included, who is excluded, and how?
Your project should include a primary insight that makes a judgment about which audience is invoked in the rhetorical situation. This judgment should be specific (i.e., avoid the myth of “everyone” as an audience).
Your project is written for an audience and should be written with an audience in mind: it should be organized in such a way that readers can follow your thinking from paragraph to paragraph and within each paragraph. This organization should lead your reader to your primary insight in a clear manner; in other words, your primary insight should help structure your project.
Since you are writing for a website (your ePortfolio site), you should include and integrate at least one multimodal element. You could include pictures, sounds, or even hyperlinks to other websites; but you must make sure that your reader understands why you are including these elements. Consider what media might reinforce your primary insight, capture the invoked audience, and/or appeal to your readers in another way. Just do not forget to explicitly refer to that element and explain it to your readers.
Your project should be approximately 500-1000 words in length
The Truth is an anti-vaping company whose mission statement is as follows: “Inspiring Lives Free from Smoking, Vaping, and Nicotine” They aspire to be a change in how “Big Tobacco”, as they call it, targets people. With the influx in teen vaping, their biggest mission overall is helping people understand the dangers of nicotine.
The Truths’ audience relies on those who consume television, and/or have access to their social media platforms and advertisements on the radio, or live in metropolitan areas that have physical advertisements. However, their content hopes to invoke word-of-mouth, to be reached by as many people as possible, as this is their mission- to help end nicotine addiction. This is why they have employed many advertisements, across almost every social media or media platform I can think of. This, in turn, is seen by overwhelming amounts of teens and young adults…the population that takes the cake in terms of those affected by the epidemic. The Truths’ secondary mission is to stop big tobacco from profiting off of young teens who didn't ask to be addicted to nicotine in the first place. These major stakeholders such as tobacco companies and vape or smoke shops are directly affected by The Truths’ media and anti-smoking advertisements, resulting in declining tobacco, vape, and nicotine sales.
The Truth creates advertisements designed to instill fear in those who vape, and spark emotion. One ad that comes to mind is a radio advertisement that I hear constantly on a popular “today’s top hits” radio station - perfect for the young audience the company is trying to reach. Perfect timing and content placement is an something this company has not lacked, they aim to advertise in places they know young adults and teens will see, such as social media; Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook, along with advertisements on MTV, Adult Swim, and trending teen shows on popular streaming platforms. This company has done their research! They have even created posters for highschool classrooms! In these advertisements, the company presents high-quality sound and picture, along with fantasting editing and scripts or realities of some of the people who are addicted to vaping, some advertisements are seen as corny, losing the efficacy from young viewers. Despite the enormous effort this company takes to defeat the vaping epidemic among teens, some are truly not willing to quit, and those who don’t aren't willing to listen or view their content, and see it as repetitive.
On the contrary, of course, there are some people who physically can’t consume these ads, despite how prevalent they are in the media. Those who are blind or have low-vision may only have access to audio ads, and those who are deaf or hard-of-hearing may only have access to visual advertisements. Furthermore, those without internet access or social media may not see these ads, unless posted physically in a classroom, bus stop, or window, usually in metropolitan areas.
Overall, The Truth has, in my opinion, moved mountains in terms of helping people quit nicotine, known to be a dangerous carcinogen, with toxic ingredients, and a laundry list of health risks. This company uses familiar language, imagery, and contexts to invoke a specific audience, which has been unfairly targeted by ”Big Tobacco”, to prey on teens and young adults.
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