TOW #13 - Flab to Fab - Visual

Today, we're going to look at an utter failure of a rhetorical text. This title-less visual advertisement which I have titled "Flab to Fab" based on its most outstanding text has no defined author, let alone a company or individual taking credit for its production. This lack of information on its origin is simply the beginning of this advertisement's problems. Let's take it from the top - at the top of this advertisement, it contains a quotation in multicolored, glaring text testifying to whatever is being advertised - information on that is absent. Most of the time, testimony is a rather effective tool, but when the quote comes from an uncited source, it loses any and all credibility The next outstanding issue with this ad are the images - which were a good idea, images are sometimes the quickest way to effectively communicate a point to an audience (whom is also completely undefined). However, the image represents this mysterious weight loss "something" in a very poor fashion. The first image, subtitled "before", displays a morbidly obese woman. The second image, subtitled "after", shows a slightly less obese woman. For a product trying to advertise dramatic weight loss, showing two obese people will not effectively communicate your point. The "before" and "after" points are also nullified by the first and second images containing people of obviously different skin color, thus proving the before and after subtitles to be falsifications. All in all, this advertisement is a poor attempt at creating an attention catching advertisement for a mysterious product - the mystery attempting to arouse curiosity in people, but only breeding disinterest. None of the apparent rhetorical devices are effective in the slightest, yeilding an ultimately ineffective text.