Pun but not Fun

This advertisement was published in 2007 by the Inghams Enterprises Pty Ltd, a chicken and turkey products producer. On the top of the advertisement, there is a bold slogan “Breast awareness week”. Below the slogan, there are photos of three different chicken breast products. On the bottom, there are descriptions of “Ingham snacks are now made with 100% chicken breast.”

Originally, the creator of this advertisement is trying to promote their products through the use of pun with the word “Breast”. According to Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary & Thesaurus (source: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/pun?q=pun), “pun” is “a humorous use of a word or phrase that has several meanings or that sounds like another word”. The creator of the advertisement is trying to relate their chicken breast products with the well-known campaign of “Breast Awareness Week”, as to promote their products in a humorous way. However, the “Breast Awareness Week” is a famous charity campaign intended to raise public awareness on breast cancer, instead of humor, this advertisement is considered to be offensive to a lot of people.

Firstly, this is most offensive to the people who suffered from breast cancer. To them, this advertisement have made fun with their disease to promote the products. Secondly, to their friends, the advertisement will evoke a lot of unhappy memories when they see this advertisement. Thirdly, to the public, in order to raise the awareness of their advertisement, the company have made fun of a charity event which purpose is to raise the public’s awareness towards a horrible disease. In this case, instead of promoting their products, the advertisement have actually created a huge damage to the brand image and reputation.

"Animal Equality demonstration in Barcelona for 'World Meat Out Day'"
, by James Wardell, 20 March, 2012. Source: http://www.demotix.com/news/1115640/animal-equality-demonstration-barcelona-world-meat-out-day/all-media

Fear of ‘Meat’

The heading of this photo essay is "Animal Equality demonstration in Barcelona for 'World Meat Out Day", it’s created by a photo journalist named James Wardell in Spain last year. He captured the moment while ‘Animal Equality’, an international animal right organization, was holding a demonstration for the 'World Meat Out Day' in Barcelona. The goal of the demonstration was to raise public awareness and persuade them to stop eating meats by the simulation of raw meat production in supermarkets. This photo essay is composed of photos that was captured in different parts of the demonstration, including the ‘human meat’ making process (Figure 1 to 5) and the final ‘product’ (Figure 6 to 7).

By the means of terrifying audience, the composition details of this photo essay have created a persuasive message, which is “be aware of animal rights, and to stop killing animals and eating meats”. Firstly, the subjects (demonstrators) of the photos are very shocking and terrifying, the bloody images of ‘human meat’ is able to lead the audience to imagine how terrible it would be if the same thing we did to the animals is applied to human. Secondly, blood is an element that appeared in every photo. Moreover, the colour of blood looks sharper under the sunlight. By the use of repetition, along with the accented red colour of blood in a bright environment, the photo journalist have highlighted the bloody image of selling animal meat. Thirdly, all of the photos have close-up image of subjects. This have increase the intensity of the power of the images. In addition, the photographer have adopted the low angle in Figure. 3 and 4, this have almost created a first person experience to the audience by leading them to imagine being packed like the animals.

The photo journalist have successfully delivered his message through the arrangement of components in the photo essay. As an audience, I felt shocked at first and start to feel guilty when I make reflection on how human treat the animals cruelly.

On 22nd October, 2013, Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun Ying has made responses regarding to the issue on free-to-air television license as he is being accused of overruling Exco over HKTV licence. Figure 1 is the news photo posted by Apple Daily, and figure 2 is posted by Takungpao. The two news photos are reporting on the same subject (Leung Chun Ying), but are completely different. Figure 1 captured Leung Chun Ying only when he is delivering his speech, while figure 2 is taken when he is standing in front of different groups of protester and receiving the petition submitted by the HKTV staffs.

In figure 1, since only the close-up image of Leung Chun Ying is captured, his facial expression can be seen very closely and clearly. At that time, Mr. Leung is looking down and using his fist to cover his mouth, so he looks quite tired and upset, just like he has done something wrong. This close-up photo suggests the importance of the subject, Leung Chun Ying, and leads readers to focus on his sad looking image.

On the other hand, figure 2 can let readers to see the whole picture. Leung Chun Ying is facing away from the camera, he stands very close to the protesters and it seems that he is reading the petition given by the HKTV staffs. The long shot image of Leung Chun Ying shows the closeness between him and the protesters, together with his actions (bows his head slightly to read the petition), this photo shapes a "caring" image of Leung Chun Ying to the readers. It shows that Leung Chun Ying is willing to listen to the protesters and cares for what they expressed.

At last, although figure 1 and 2 are related to the same subject, they shows a large contrast of the image of Leung Chun Ying by posting photos with different contents, focuses and compositions.

Obama or Miley on the stage?

This piece of political cartoon is found in the website of U.S. News & World Report. The cartoon symbolically focuses on the issue of the controversial national health care reform in the United States, which is also known as the “ObamaCare”. It is indicated by the words “ObamaCare “written on the foam finger of the main character. For the first time you look at the main character in the middle of the stage, you might misunderstand that “she” is Miley Cyrus, a famous American actress and singer. It is because the character is wearing the same outfit with Miley Cyrus at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards (VMA). However, when you look into details, you can notice the significant ear shape of the main character, and it indicates that “she” is actually the President of the United States, President Obama.

From the settings and characters, this cartoon literally focuses on the contradiction in the national health care plan and it can effectively persuade the audience by portraying a negative image of President Obama. Firstly, the author expressed his contradiction towards the ObamaCare by creating confusion between Miley Cyrus and President Obama. Recently, Miley Cyrus has received a lot of criticism towards her revealing clothes and indecent actions in her performance at the MTV VMA, so the Miley Cyrus-like Obama insinuate that President Obama is also criticized by the public with his health care reform.

Secondly, in the cartoon, all the audience at the back are shouting at the main character with different negative words, like “repulsive”, “sickening”, and “dreadful”. It reflects that ObamaCare also has received a lot of negative comments from the public of the United States due to its potentials to offend the personal freedom and increase the taxes etc.

At last, the thinking bubble in the cartoon stated “Oh Yeah. They are so loving this.”, and the word “loving” is in red colour uniquely. The author illustrated irony to stress his opposite opinion with the main character, which is President Obama and the ObamaCare.

 The author uses a humorous way to persuade the audience by showing how the main character (Miley-like Obama) continues to perform (promote ObamaCare) even though most of the audience (the public of the United States) do not really like it.


Reference:
http://global-waves.blogspot.hk/2012/08/obamacare.html

Looking into Matt Madden's website, many comics with similar captions are shown. Most of them are interesting and creative, I never thought that there are so many ways to tell a story. One of the comics in the website has left a deep impression in my mind, the title of this comic is one of the most popular rhetorical devices, which is “Personification”.

In fact, the images of this comic are not very special when it is compared with other comics in the website, the images are even completely the same as some other comics (e.g. the Template) written by Matt Madden. However, comparing with those comics, you can see that this comic has a totally different expression or point of view when you look into details. 

The whole story of this comic focuses more on the objects (that we usually neglect), like the computer, the hat and the refrigerator rather than the main character. Nearly all of the objects in the comic are personified and “they” are all able to “speak”. From the thought and speech bubbles and also the interaction between the male character and the objects, it gives us a brand new idea of what the point of views of the objects are if “they” can really feel or talk. For example, in the beginning of the comic, the laptop yawned and asked the male character if “he” can go to sleep or not as he was tired. Another interesting example is that the refrigerator told the male character that “he” is losing “his” cool. 

I think that this comic is really amusing and inspiring. From the illustration of personification, it reminds me that viewing things from different angles can be so funny and memorable, and is able to leave a deep impression in readers’ mind.