1. Lambert 1
(Robert) Curtis Lambert
English 101
Professor Bolton
13 June, 2012
Rhetorical Situation Analysis
Purpose: I chose to write my first essay, Ad Analysis, based on an advertisement for the
new Sonata Hybrid by Hyundai. My intent in this essaywas to expand the reader’s thinking on
how the “Wizards of Madison Avenue Advertising,” as I like to refer to them, spend countless
millions of dollars researching and producing ads designed to convince the American public we
need things that we really do not! The ad for this automobile does just that, and very nicely I
might add. The imagery is captivating and calming, all the while drawing you in to stop and take
a look at the new hybrid automobile. It does such a good job at this thatinitially you lose sight of
what the ad is selling. The Hyundai advertising team did a fantastic job conveying to the reader
that owning a hybrid vehicle will somehow make your life better. I hoped to disclose to the
reader that sometimes we get caught up in how a product is being propagated and lose sight of
the fact that we would be just as well off without it. In fact, may be better off, financially and
otherwise. I wanted to pique their curiosity about the real need for hybridizing cars and whether
or not we could do just as well with an auto that runs on gas alone, if it is fuel efficient. That was
not a direct point in my writing, but the subtext of the essay. The ad for this automobile was
found in the December 2011 issue of GQ magazine: December 2011 is important here. The
setting for the ad is a bright and sunny spring/summer morning in pastoral landscape. I wanted
the reader to understand that advertisers and manufacturers are aware that, in the dead of winter

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in most of the country, a bright ray of golden sunshine would most assuredly grab the reader’s
attention. It certainly caught mine, so the ad does work on that front,among others.
Genre: The ad was designed to be published in print; therefore I chose to analyze the
topic as a potential consumer, in print form, specifically an essay that could be published in a
paper or magazine. I wanted to present the information as informative, but revealing, as to how
we Americans are manipulated by advertisers. It was opinionated at times, but I hope it was more
unbiased than biased as a whole.
Audience: The audience for GQ, where the ad was found, is fairly straight forward:
men,mostly “yuppie” types or those of us who still fancy ourselves as fashionable and also want
to stay “in the know” with what is hip and happening in contemporary American culture
andpolitics, as well as culture and politics abroad. However, the market and target audience
reading GQ is not too vast. It is probably presumed that the readers of GQ would be a little
forward thinking, but mostly adult men, probably under 50; therefore a hybrid automobile would
be appealing. I wanted my essay to target people of both genders and a range of ages. But, the
demographic for people looking to buy hybrid cars, I presumed (in error I later discovered) to be
small and mostly a 20 to 40 something age range, which works for GQ’s demographic.
Stance: I do see myself in the category of readers that GQ targets, so I guess I am
throwing darts at myself somewhat. However, I am not a proponent of the global warming
phenomenon and do not believe I have to spend an extra $8,000.00 on an automobile to get a
hybrid to do my part to help preserve the planet. Don’t get me wrong, I am not for cutting down
the Redwoods in California for fuel, but I do believe we can do better than a hybrid car, and do it
more efficiently and cost effectively. We just should have started 25 years ago! So, I would say

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my stance may be slightly jaded. I am not sure I did a great job of not rendering an opinion, but I
did try to be fair to proponents of global warming and hybrid car lovers.
Media/Design: I did my very best to write an essay free of error, both grammatically and
in content. I have read, re-read, and re-read again trying to clear up any misunderstanding or over
use of verbiage and errors. I know it is not perfect, but I am pleased with the end result as it
stands now. I would accompany my essay with a sample of the ad if it were published. The Ad
Analysis essay I wrote was based on the ad for the Hyundai Sonata Hybrid that appeared in print
in the December 2011 issue of GQ magazine.
Research: The article I found in my research for my ad Analysis essay did, surprisingly,
alter my perception of who and what Hyundai is trying to do. According to the article published
in March of this year Hyundai is set to break all past sales records and they attribute a good
portion of this success to the Sonata and the Hybrid Sonata. That was a bit of a surprise since I
have always presumed that the hybrid market in the United States was fairly limited. Clearly I
had an erroneous opinion on that issue and I will be more cautious in the future of coming to
conclusions too hastily. Over all I think what Hyundai is trying to do is admirable, I had just
presumed the market was more limited. If we are willing to accept that the figures are correct as
presented, then clearly the market for hybrid vehicles is larger than I would have guessed.
The article on Hyundai Sonata taken from HGTC database EBSCO; first 2 pages of 71 pages,
printed and attached. Full article may be found at link below:
http://storm.hgtc.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bw
h&AN=201203291520PR.NEWS.USPR.LA79175&site=ehost-live&scope=site