Ad Nation

Ad Nation

Attack of the Ads
The essay that I chose to critique is “Ad Nation,” written by Wayne Grytting. This essay that Grytting wrote is an excerpt from American Newspeak. When reading the essay the first thing I noticed was that the paragraphs didnt go well with each other. It seems as though the author is just writing down his thoughts in no particular order rather than trying to tie his ideas together in a more orderly manner. The next thing I noticed that was wrong with the essay is that there aren’t enough counterarguments. The essay is swayed too heavily on the negative side of advertising. Finally, I think the author could have argued his points more logically.
This essay really jumped out at me when I first read it. The author was so sarcastic with his views that sometimes I had a hard time figuring out which side he was taking. Grytting must have written this essay at a time when he was absolutely fed up with all the propaganda the media was feeding to us. He creates some possible controversy when he starts talking about gun advertisements, depending on your views of this issue. It’s pretty clear to me that his intended audience was anyone who is just as annoyed as him with advertisements, or perhaps a victim of a gun crime. In this case, I wasn’t exactly the audience he had in mind.
Grytting starts out by saying how advertisements are getting more and more complex in order to reach the intended consumer. It is now becoming harder and harder to reach consumers through particular advertisements. The author then talks about how buildings are beginning to hold space for billboards to advertise and to help reach the consumer. It’s pretty obvious that the author doesn’t agree with this concept. Grytting then goes on a rant about gun advertising. He first mentions that the California Supreme Court ruled that gun manufacturers cannot be sued by victims of gun violence. The author doesn’t agree with this either. Throughout the rest of his final paragraph, the...

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