In the first article of ‘Not Just Words’ we are presented with a picture of the United States flag. Upon closer inspection of the flag the stars are swapped out with famous logos of companies and corporations found within the United States.
When someone looks at the American flag or thinks about the United States in general, they often will associate the US with hard working people, free will, and good intentions. When looking at the flag and then seeing the companies implanted in the flag, it conveys those feelings to the companies.
By using this association of emotions on the flag it is using a rhetoric strategy of sending a message through a person’s feelings. This strategy is a message by Pathos or emotional appeal.
Another way that same setup could be looked at is by giving those companies a sense of credibility, or in other words Ethos. Since these logos are also from famous high ranking companies, it could also be seen that America is made up of successful corporations. By putting the companies on the flag, it is trying to imply to it’s audience that America supports those companies and that as an American, you should support them too.
This image doesn’t do much in the form of Logos, which is logical appeal, but that doesn’t mean that it is any less symbolic.
If I were to give this image a caption, I would give it something along the lines of “ Hard work keeps this country running.”
This is an interesting take, but I would have to disagree with you here. It seems to me that the designer of this flag is implying that American values have been overtaken or conflated with the values of corporations. That is, the implication is that corporations don't represent the values of Americans themselves, but rather that of individual suppression, hostile takeovers, wealth hoarding, etc. But at any rate, good job :)
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