Audience Strategy

Carolyn Franco
April 08, 2021
Visual Analysis Essay Professor McIntosh

When creating these subway advertisements for reminding people to stay safe in the subway stations, my audience was more for people who come to NYC to visit and vacation. Though fellow New Yorkers can also be the audience for my message that I am trying to get across in my advertisements. What I want my audience to understand from my advertisements is there is no such thing as being too safe, any and all precautions are necessary when you are traveling in trains. Having an advertisement as a reminder that reminds people to be alert and have a safe trip can make them feel cared for. I want my audience to feel like they are being cared for and thought about. My primary characteristic for my audience is anyone of age, race, status, whoever commutes on the train to get to work or school or home, these are all people who take the train on a everyday basis or for tourists that are on a budget and still try to get the NYC experience of taking the train like a regular new yorker. The way I would want for someone to respond when they see my advertisement would be in a positive way, not all of us have someone to tell us to have a safe trip or to get home safe, so being able to see a message on the train saying get home safe and to stay safe can make someone’s day. The genre that can make my audience more attractive and accessible would-be humor. Being able to get an important message across to people in a funny way.

Reflection

The genre I went for in this assignment was a PSA. I went for a PSA because I knew I was informing the people in the train stations that there are dangers when riding the subway and the reminder of staying safe and alert can help them stay vigilant. Since my audience are fellow New Yorkers and tourists who come and explore the city and use the subway to stay in their budget, I went with a PSA because there are things that one should know when coming into the city and using the subway as your transportation. Having a advertisement in subway stations and trains about being aware of your surroundings and vigilant is important because sometimes people do get caught up in the moment and there is nothing wrong about that, one could have fun with their group or friends or family when they are on the train but there are people out there that want to cause harm to others so having fun but also being aware of what is going on around you in the subway station or train is really important because you can get yourself into a situation that can be hard to get out of.

Some rhetorical strategies I used in this assignment were logos and ethos. How I used logos was from my informed opinion editorial I talked about how crime on subways is inevitable, something is always going to happen whether it be big or small, crime won’t stop. So, in my advertisements for this assignment I used it as a reminder for people to be cautious when traveling on the subway. In my second advertisement of ‘Tips From Your Fellow New Yorkers’ I did ask my friends and family about the tips that they would give to someone if it were their first

time taking the subway here in NYC. This is how I used ethos in my advertisements, I asked people who lived here in NYC who use the train to get to work/school and if they have any tips on what they do and look out for when they are traveling on the subway. One thing I didn’t include in the advertisement about the tips but that I also found interesting and sad was about taking the train late at night and being a woman. I didn’t include this in my advertisement because it would exclude men from that tip in particular, because in reality, anything can happen to anybody late at night on the train, whether it be a woman or a man, anyone can be a victim.

Composing a visual essay was very different from writing a traditional essay because I have never done a visual essay before. When I saw the assignment was to have a message get across to our audience through visuals, I panicked because I did not know how to properly do that because I believe a picture is worth a thousand words. Being able to find pictures that can fit the message I was trying to get across was not as hard as I thought. But I did find this visual essay interesting because it challenged me to get out of my comfort zone and challenge me in getting my point across to my targeted audience.