Ad for Eclipse gum, a human-sized hotdog grips a weapon-sized stick with nails poking out of it. He looks at the audience with a petrified expression on his face, realizing that there is no escape from the powerful Eclipse gum. In the foreground, a brightly-lit poster nailed on a wooden telephone post depicts an image of a pack of Solar Eclipse gum and the sign reads, "When we find bad breath we kill it." A sub-heading on the poster states the phrase, "Lights out bad breath." Depicting bad breath as a giant hot dog standing in a dark, abandoned alley filled with trash emphasizes the connection between junk food and halitosis. The gum is presented as a powerful antidote to the evils of bad breath caused by junk food. However, the advertisement is not a public service ad promoting healthy lifestyles; it is a pitch for chewing gum. Therefore, central message of the ad is that Eclipse gum can conquer bad breath like a superhero vanquishes criminals. Because the advertisement relies on the universal moral dichotomy of good vs. evil, the Eclipse gum ad is an effective means to pitch what would otherwise be ordinary chewing gum. One of the ways the advertisers create the dichotomy of good vs. evil is through composition and lighting. For example, the poster of the gum is placed in the foreground on a large telephone pole that literally eclipses all the other objects in the picture. The sheer size of the pole and the relative size of the poster indicate that the gum will ultimately triumph over bad breath. Furthermore, the poster is in the upper-right of the composition while the hot dog is in the lower left. Traditionally, objects that are closer to the ground seem metaphorically "lower," and therefore more evil, than objects that float above the ground, just as heaven is thought to be in the sky and hell beneath the Earth. In fact, the placement of the two objects hints at a David and Goliath image of the one dominating the other in spite of a significant size...
Throughout the ad, line placement draws the eye toward the advertiser's messages. For instance, hot dog's stick points directly toward the poster so that the viewer's eye is directed toward the Eclipse gum poster. Also, the hot dog stands upright, adding another vertical element that parallels the pole: as a result the eye is naturally drawn toward the Eclipse ad. An upper-level balcony also sits on a diagonal line pointing toward the poster, and it parallels the section of the poster that reads, "Lights out bad breath."Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
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