J2 Max Dietz

I passed by a Hungry Howies pizza place advertisement on campus when I was driving in the North Woodward parking lot today. Its form was that of a billboard. The advertisement stated, “Every order comes with a free set of breadsticks.” This text was also accompanied bye a picture of a steaming pile of breadsticks and a Hungry Howies logo.

            I believe Bitzer would call the rhetorical situation put forth by this advertisement a “situation of need.” As in the advertisement’s implied argument requires the receiver to view need. Its “mood altering reality” is to make the receiver aware of the missing need. Many receivers may not have even known that they were lacking free breadsticks before viewing the advertisement. Obviously the ad altered my mood because even only looking at it for 5 seconds, it has stuck in my head an hour later in enough detail for me to write about it. Bitzer also says that, “In this sense rhetoric is always persuasive,” which explains why the advertisement has successfully changed my needs. The exigency put forth is that the add makes you feel like there is an urgency to buy something at Hungry Howies. In this case, though, it is only an illusion because nothing is at risk except for the lack of free breadsticks. A more powerful example would be if the free breadsticks sale had an expiration date.

            Edbauer would disagree from the start because he would not see the relationship between an advertisement and a receiver as identical in every case. Rather, he sees it as a closed and separate interaction between each individual as she or he looks and thinks about the advertisement. Each person will be affected differently by the advertisement. If anything, Edbauer would compare this too his “weird situation.” I would call this an anti-weird situation. It is where big box chains are able to advertise over small local ones. Tallahassee is very similar to Austin in the fact that they are both places of government that have exploded economically (but not Tallahassee to as much of an extent as Austin).