Men’s Men, Women’s Women, and Kid Kustomers

In “Men’s Men and Women’s Women,” Steve Craig illustrates through example four different angles of targeting advertisers use to appeal to various potential customers by gender. In “Kid Kustomers,” Eric Schlosser takes the reader systematically through the advertisers’ thought processes when targeting children with commercials. The former uses his four examples as the layout for his essay; the latter takes a logical approach, explaining each point along the way. Both produce quotations from experts that support their point of view and demonstrate emotional appeal, although to varying degrees. Most importantly, each author devises a rhetorical strategy to manipulate the reader into accepting his points of view.

The first—and most obvious—variation between Craig’s and Schlosser’s essays is the overall layout of their ideas. Craig divides the bulk of his essay into four classifications of commercial, each “selected to provide an example of how men and women are portrayed to themselves and to the other sex” (204). Accordingly, he provides examples of commercials that fit the titular “Men’s Men” and “Women’s Women” categories, as well as “Men’s Women” and “Women’s Men.” Craig introduces the idea by explaining the concept of demographic targeting in terms of gender, and then makes the claim that “program producers and schedulers must consider the target audience needs of their clients (the advertisers) in creating a television program line up” (203). This leads into his four classifications, each with a selected commercial that exemplifies it and then supporting facts. Each section is independent of the others, so that each commercial proves itself on its own merits.

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Being a Writer Sucks; I Love Being a Writer!

Wow, it has been a while.  I’ve been so thoroughly swamped lately that I’ve totally neglected this AND my novel.  Which is kind of contradictory, if you think about it, considering I quit my years of IT service to pursue a writing career.  You know, where people, uh, write?

–So why does being a writer suck?

Because there’s so much damn WRITING!  UGH!  First, I’ve enrolled at the local community college here, and although I’ve placed past all the basic writing courses, there’s still two semesters of required composition.  There’s nothing more horrid than writing about writing.  Rhetorical analysis is one of the most BORING things in the world to do. 

–rhetorical analysis – n. the process of breaking down a text into the sum of its parts to determine what the writer is trying to achieve, and what strategies are being employed to achieve it

It is so dry, lacking emotion and clarity, exactly the opposite of what I want to write about.

Besides that, I have to write for my other classes as well, obviously.  But, that’s the way it is: before they’ll let me go and write about whatever I want, I have to prove to everyone that I indeed know how to write.  Which is no problem, I understand it.

–Though, I have to say, I feel sorry for the other kids in my class.  (Yes, kids.) I’ve yet to see proof of academic literacy in any of them.  I’d be embarrassed to be their parents.

Outside of that, I’m struggling to make money as a writer in the outside world too.  No one wants to pay me for my opinion.

–Really?  No shit.

I do have a couple of paying writing jobs right now.  One is for a search engine optimization company, writing articles with keywords to boost search engine hits for various websites.  I was writing on and off for GearLive.com, I should really start doing that full time, if Andru Edwards still remembers who I am.  It’s been a little while.  (EDIT: I checked my old GearLive account, it’s been locked down.)  That’s fine.  I also write tech articles for a couple sites.  I used to write for a few more places than I do now, but I had to scale back all of my non-paying jobs for now.  It is not cheap being a full-time student!

–Blah, blah, blah.

The bottom line here, is that unfortunately, it takes a long time writing before you get to write about what YOU want to write about.  If you truly have the passion, however, you’ll stick with it.  I will.  I want to get my novel out.  I’m going to try and continue the storyline sometime soon.  We’ll see.

I hope to try this more regularly.  See you next time, people.