Visual Rhetoric

The campaign videos broadcast by Mitt Romney and Barack Obama gave great examples of persuasive visual rhetoric. In Obama's video, it opened with videos panning across homes and communities, thriving businesses, people going to work, all symbolic representations of America and its citizens. By beginning with this, they give the audience a way to relate and engages them from the very beginning. It next switches to pictures of the depression, a Vietnam memorial, 9/11 footage and Katrina damage as the narrator says we've been through tough times together. Following the tough times, it shows us examples of us rebuilding and enduring. This is important for Obama's campaign especially because we have been through an economic crisis with him; he emphasizes perseverance and trust that we will come out of this, just like we always have. Throughout the video, Obama shows he is a caring, devoted and determined leader. From shaking veterans hands to holding infants to remembering those we lost at ground zero to reading personal letters from the American people, he constantly emphasizes his caring devotion to America's success. Romney had many of the same examples throughout his video emphasizing the same points, however his opening was a bit different. The very first picture was him speaking to the camera with his wife beside him looking at him, showing the support she gives him and immediately opening with strong family values. The video then goes to show pictures of Olympic athletes and the Olympic games in Salt Lake in 2002. This is important because those Olympic games came after the 9/11 tragedy and was an extremely important test of America's resiliency, which he successfully coordinated. One other major difference between his and Obama's was the importance of family that Romney continually stressed. I think this is an important example of visual rhetoric because it relates the American people in the sense that Romney will care for us and our country in the same aspect.