TOW #13-Abby Wambach Gatorade Commercial // Forget Me

                Gatorade recently published an advertisement titled “Forget Me.” Gatorade is a very well-known company that supplies athletic drinks for before, during and after exercise. They are also commonly known for using professional athletes that many people look up to in their advertisements. There are countless examples of famous professionals that have been featured in their commercials, some include: Kevin Durant and Dwyane Wade, two famous basketball players, Derek Jeter, a famous baseball player, Usain Bolt, a famous sprinter, Lionel Messi, a famous soccer player, and in this case, Abby Wambach, a famous American female soccer player. Abby Wambach has the most career goals (184) and holds the record for not only female, but male included. She is a two time Olympic gold medalist, and was the captain for the US Women’s National Team. In this commercial, Gatorade utilizes an appeal to pathos and, and uses an iconic figure in order to advertise their company.

                This commercial is told by Abby Wambach. She talks about how she wants to “keep a legacy where the ball keeps rolling forward. Where the next generation is so great, that I am no longer remembered.” This quote is very selfless and shows how down-to-earth Wambach is. The use of her talking about how she doesn’t care that much about her successes, but how she does care about the future generations show hew true character. This invokes an emotional appeal because listening to someone who holds national records talk about how she only cares about making the world better makes the audience shed a tear or, at least, get the chills. The use of Abby Wambach as the character in this commercial is prevalent because, especially now as Wambach is retiring, everyone knows who she is. She is also an inspiring figure among young female athletes. Since this commercial is for Gatorade and Abby Wambach is now shown supporting Gatorade, this will also influence her supporters to buy the products sold. 

https://youtu.be/BGQZ5FfvP3E

TOW #12-Girl In The Woods by Aspen Matis

            This cycle I decided to read the nonfiction book Girl in the Woods by Aspen Matis. The book is written about Aspen’s experience in her first semester as a freshman in college. She recounts a time when she was raped, and speaks about how she felt as though she did not have any support. Her mother didn’t understand, she never mentioned it to her father, her brother told her to get over it, and her counselor could not do much to help get the rapist in trouble due to the little evidence they had. Aspen’s reaction was to escape. She didn’t want to continue to go to college because she could not stand to be near her rapist, but she felt as if she was letting her family down since everyone else went to very prestigious schools and had successful careers. In the first half of the book, the author uses description to explain scenarios she experienced and the life she lived during her freshman year.

            In the book, Aspen uses description to help the author visualize and understand the situations she was in and the feelings she felt. She explains her feelings after she realized that no one could help her by saying “I lay there, angry and scared, realizing finally that my school would not help her. The rape counselor didn’t. My parents couldn’t. I had to help myself. I had to leave this place.” Although this may be blunt, her telling us exactly how she is feeling makes it easy to picture a girl laying in her bed in her dorm room with a big frown on her face coupled with furrowed eyebrows. She also states, The air in my room tasted rancid, of damp dirty socks and old dried period blood. But I wasn’t on my period. I couldn’t breathe this air. My phone lit up—MOM—but I didn’t answer. I had to go outside, get out, right away.” This may be a little gross, but it is definitely easier to visualize what was happening at the exact moment that Aspen is describing. The description she uses helps progress the plot and make it easier for the reader to understand what is happening as the author describes it. 

TOW #11-ISIS: San Bernardino shooters were "supporters"

While acts of terrorism equate to acts of evil to most, few believe that terrorism is justifiable. The planned attacks in Paris sparked others from around the world who share the same beliefs as those who are involved in ISIS to commit terrible offenses. Since the Paris attacks, there have been multiple threats and actions that have resulted in more deaths and injuries. Recently in San Bernardino, there was a shooting relates to terrorism.  CNN’s Faith Karimi, along with Jason Hanna and Yousuf Basil, wrote about the information that combines to validate that the two shooters, Tashfeen Malik and Syed Rizwan Farook, were tied to radicalization. The authors employed juxtaposition and an appeal to ethos in order to confirm the attacks were a form of terrorism.

This terrible act of terrorism is the beginning of a new type of attacks. The authors make sure to let the readers know that this might not have necessarily been ISIS’ idea. Although ISIS is saying that they were ‘supporters’ of the terrorist group, the authors compare the other ways that ISIS has claimed responsibility to the way they handled this one. In other attacks, ISIS says that the people involved were part of the group and that ISIS was responsible, but in this case the author states that ISIS “did not say the couple were members or that ISIS was responsible.” By comparing these two separate easy that ISIS has dealt with attacks, the author can easily separate the two and warn the country that a new wave of attacks may be upon us. Ever since the Paris attacks, many more people who have radical beliefs are beginning to plan their own attacks, which is a whole new type of threats that our country will have to face.