By: Kailee Moss, Anna Jones, Marisa Sloan, and Kendall Schunk
Our Self-Improvement Plan of Action is the New Pathway Camp, a camp meant to help people get in touch with nature and themselves; or, in other words, a way to escape society and acquire a knowledge of transcendentalism. We chose this because we felt that this camp would better address all aspects of transcendentalism than one single product. In order to meet all the requirements for this project, we first had to figure out all of the aspects of our plan. We had already decided what it would be: a self-improvement camp. Then we determined how the camp would work. We decided that, in order for participants to get the best experience, the camp would be a month long. Some aspects such as nature observation and wilderness survival would be included for students of all ages. Alongside the inner workings of the camp, we also had to include rhetorical and advertisement strategies to attract people of all ages to our camp. We determined that a great way to include an advertising strategy for this camp would be through the use of testimonials, which show others appreciation for the camp and explain the benefits which we felt would persuade more people to come to the camp. We also included the advertising strategy of transfer, which involves ideas with positive connotations being used to suggest that the positive qualities should be associated with the product and the user; this is shown through our use of pictures of people enjoying their time at the camp and beautiful scenery. Lastly, we incorporated the advertising strategy of simple solutions; essentially, our camp would easily solve all people’s problems with the material and commercial world in a short amount of time. In order to persuade people to use our plan of action, we also included rhetorical strategies. Firstly, we decided to include procatalepsis to bolster our point that people need to get back into nature and escape modern society. Then, we used hypophora to introduce the idea of our camp and how it will help people break their attachment to modern society. We also included ethos when describing our camp counselors to help build up the credibility of our camp. Lastly, one of the biggest strategies we used was the pathos appeal to pride, which convinces viewers that in order to maintain dignity and self respect, they must come to our camp.
Advertising Strategies
We all researched other summer camps and compiled a list of different activities from them that we felt would reflect our camp's ideals. We then took portions of the videos from these camps to incorporate into our video to better demonstrate the individual activities and the overall idea of our camp. Working together, we wrote a script that represented our concept of a camp for teaching transcendentalist principles.
Where we filmed the video was extremely important, one of the Transcendentalist Principles is nature and therefore we wanted to find a natural environment to show our audience. We used the IPhone 6 to film our video since it has higher resolution than our other options. In order to make the filming process easier, we used a laptop with the script on it and placed it under the camera that way it looked as if we were looking
I took the clips that we filmed, as well as videos from outside sources, and compiled them into our commercial. We decided that the beginning of the commercial, where we discuss the corruption of society, should be sped up and in black and white, which creates negative feelings. This parallels the end of the commercial, where there are extremely fast and colorful images of the camp- creating the opposite effect of warmth and happiness. In addition, the upbeat music that plays behind video clips of the camp contributes to this effect.
Advertising Strategies
- Testimonial: Kendall and Marisa
- Transfer: fancy pictures of people being happy and pretty scenery
- Simple Solutions: Our camp is the only way for people to truly get in touch with themselves and improve their lives.
- Procatalepsis: “Some people see no fault in modern society, but those who think this have lost touch with their inner selves, society is a corrupt machine focusing on what they propose is for the good of all but in the process rob people of their individuality.”
- Hypophora: “if any of this sounds familiar, then New Pathway camp is the place for you.”
- ethos: “transcendentalism’s most experienced instructors”
- (Pathos) Appeal to pride: “a deep appreciation for my own gifts and the gifts of those around me.” “discover again my own awe and respect of the wilderness” “Students come away with the knowledge and experience necessary for being an effective instructor, leader, and mentor for youth and adults.” “a greater understanding of their role in their community, and a clearer awareness of their own passions and vision for their lives.”
- Allusion: “while lying underneath the stars that God created for us…”
We all researched other summer camps and compiled a list of different activities from them that we felt would reflect our camp's ideals. We then took portions of the videos from these camps to incorporate into our video to better demonstrate the individual activities and the overall idea of our camp. Working together, we wrote a script that represented our concept of a camp for teaching transcendentalist principles.
Where we filmed the video was extremely important, one of the Transcendentalist Principles is nature and therefore we wanted to find a natural environment to show our audience. We used the IPhone 6 to film our video since it has higher resolution than our other options. In order to make the filming process easier, we used a laptop with the script on it and placed it under the camera that way it looked as if we were looking
I took the clips that we filmed, as well as videos from outside sources, and compiled them into our commercial. We decided that the beginning of the commercial, where we discuss the corruption of society, should be sped up and in black and white, which creates negative feelings. This parallels the end of the commercial, where there are extremely fast and colorful images of the camp- creating the opposite effect of warmth and happiness. In addition, the upbeat music that plays behind video clips of the camp contributes to this effect.