TOW #19 - Black South Carolina Trooper Explains Why He Helped a White Supremacist

“As racial tensions in the divided south intensify…”  This sound bite sounds like something taken out of an 1875 news story, when freed slaves were just beginning to integrate into society.  Unfortunately, this headline is just as applicable to news in the summer of 2015 as it was back then.  In his article “Black South Carolina Trooper Explains Why He Helped a White Supremacist” Dan Barry effectively explores and explain a recent incident involving a Ku Klux Klan rally in front of the South Carolina state house by providing proper background information and using testimonials.

Barry has a specific job of reporting a relatively minor, although certainly with larger ramifications, event to an extremely large group of people.  He realizes that a large portion of his audience will not be aware of the incident and thus he succinctly and effectively summarizes the event.  He gives important and interesting details, but doesn’t drown the audience in minutia.  I will attempt to harness my inner Dan Barry and recapitulate this event: there was a Ku Klux Klan rally in front of the South Carolina state house.  A black state trooper noticed an older white man, donning a shirt with a swastika, suffering in the heat.  He heroically helped this man, as he would help any other civilian, and brought him to the state house to get medical treatment.  A fellow state employee snapped a picture of this incident and shared it on the internet, where it received a bunch of attention.

Additionally, Barry uses testimony from the trooper himself, Leroy Smith, in order to fully give his readers the perspective and awareness that is necessary to understand the story.  Barry quotes Smith as saying “I think that’s the greatest thing in the world — love, and that’s why so many people were moved by it” when he was asked why it went viral.  This gives the perspective of the officer as well, as Barry’s perspective as a bystander.  This contrast give a real depth of feel to the article and lets readers truly understand the incident.

*This is the fourth installment of my project of exploring Dan Barry’s writing.  Barry is, of course, a reliable source.  He is columnist for the New York Times and he writes about sports (among other things) and how they affect our lives.

TOW #18 - Doritos Ultrasound Commerical

The Superbowl is perhaps the single biggest day of the year in America.  Almost everyone watches the game surrounded by family and friends.  And while the game itself is usually very intriguing, and the halftime show is often entertaining, the main attractions are the famed Superbowl commercials.  This year, the commercials were, as a whole, disappointing.  I would consider it a down year.  However, one commercial stood out to me above the rest: the Doritos Ultrasound commercial.

The storyline of this commercial is that a man and a woman are getting an ultrasound for their child.  The man is disrespectfully eating Doritos during the ultrasound and the wife gets mad.  The man then realizes that the child seems to follow wherever he puts the Doritos.  Then, he pulls the Dorito up very quickly and the baby kicks his mother.  The mother is furious, grabs the Dorito from her husband, and throws in away.  There is a pause, and then suddenly the baby follows and leaps out of his mother.  All three in the room start screaming. 

This commercial is effective for two reasons: 1) it includes the element of surprise and 2) it appeals to a common event most of its audience has had.

The way this commercial is structured, the audience believes they have seen the climax when the baby kicks the mother.  Then, completely unexpectedly, the actual punch line is delivered.  This step beyond makes the commercial surprising and hilarious.  Without the added bit of comedy, this commercial would be good.  But with it, this is a great commercial and extremely humorous.

Secondly, this commercial appeals to a common experience that nearly everyone watching the Superbowl has had.  Even if you haven’t been the man or wife in this situation, like me, you will understand the scenario and probably have been in a hospital like this at some point.  For me, I was there when my sister was born so I still understand the commercial and it still appeals to me.

TOW #17 - The Franchise Tag

Sometimes an article is written with the sole intent to inform an audience.  That is, indeed, the case with the article I read for this week, entitled "Everything you have ever wanted to know about NFL franchise tags” by Kevin Seifert.  This is an article that came out with a clear and immediate purpose: to inform the audience about how a franchise tag works.  The NFL allows teams to start using the franchise tag today, so clearly the word will be thrown around a lot in the coming month.  Because of that, Seifert recognized that many casual sports fans will not know the full meaning of this term so he decided it would be smart to write an article that clearly and concisely explains the tag.  Without going in to too much detail, the franchise tag is basically a one year deal that NFL teams can give one of their players each year that guarantees that player stays with the team for another year.  Granted, it will be an expensive contract, because the amount must be the average of the top 5 paid players at that position in the NFL.

Seifert created a very easy to read article by using casual diction that any sports fan can understand.  You do not need to be an NFL fanatic or GM to understand what a franchise tag is by the end of the article.  This was done on purpose: if you can understand advanced NFL jargon, then you surely know what the franchise tag is and it would be a completely useless article.  Seifert did a good job of understanding his audience and crafting his article so that it fits his purpose of explaining to a casual football fan.

While this is not a life-changing article, it serves its purpose very well, and, as a reader, I can appreciate a straightforward and logical explanatory article.