Free «Four Phases and Rhetorical Purposes» Essay Sample

With the current advancement in technological innovations, political ads seem to be the way forward. Through them, politicians, especially in developed countries can reach out to the public and make their pleas. Political ads are the way to go in today politics. That is a statement that almost all candidates would share all over the world. I have in the following discussions illustrated why through political ads; all the goals of political campaigns can be achieved taking you through the different phases and the rhetorical purposes of the ads.

In one ad by John McCain, the first phase is clearly brought out. This is when a candidate’s bibliographic information is made known to the public. The electorate is made aware of who exactly is this candidate they are supposed to endorse. John Sidney McCain is introduced as having been born in 1936 in the Panama Canal Zone, the second of three children born to John McCain Jr. and Alberta. His father rose to command the U.S. naval forces in the Pacific. He joined Episcopal High School graduating in 1954. Like his father, McCain graduated from the Naval Academy 1958. He also graduated from flight school in 1960.

In another ad by the same candidate, he was portrayed as a prominent and staunch supporter of Iraq invasion and vowed to keep U.S. troops until the war is over. He was of the opinion that 2013 was a reasonable date for achieving that goal. McCain supported extension of Bush's cuts and cutting corporate tax rates, and bring up capital gains tax rates, an item that affects high-income earners. He also supported an overhaul of immigration laws angering some conservatives; although he softened his approach later during his campaigns for nomination. This clearly portrays the second phase where a candidate takes sides on various issues of national importance. As such, the public can be in a position to determine his eligibility to make a good leader.

In an ad, McCain hit on Obama's lack of national security exposure, signaling doubts on his willingness to lobby the leaders of war torn nations with no preconditions as a sign of lack of experience. In the same ad, McCain was quoted as saying, “This bill failed because Obama put politics ahead of the country,” He went on to claim that Barrack had “phoned it in,” a term perceived by many as holding some sarcasm given that John did most of his work by phone.This portrays McCain’s attack and portray Obama as naive and egoistic. These are just but some of the issues seen in most political campaign set ups in an attempt by the candidates to outsmart each other and win public favor. Such usually is experienced during the third phase of political ads.

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Most candidates also prefer to unveil their manifestos through political ads (Harris, 1999). This is the fourth face that is supposed to portray a candidate as visionary and how much he is willing to promise the electorate. In one of his ads, Obama unveiled his manifesto proposing a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank that would invest 30 billion euros over 10 years, with the promise of unveiling two million jobs, and to sacrifice 75 billion euros for development of the green energy sector. This way, unemployment being the major issue in USA, he is mostly likely to win the people’s confidence. He also, in the same ad, pledged to assist of homestead owners swindled in the mortgage crisis and devise a "Credit Card Bill of Rights" to cushion consumers from punitive charges.

This would go a long way in assisting people to acquire homes. This again renders him as visionary if only he can deliver on the promises ones elected. The above clearly shows how good political ads are at popularizing the particular candidates through extolling their virtues while condemning the opponents and responding to their accusations. This is achieved in four stages as illustrated in the above discussions of political ads.