Paige Harker

Is Iowa Feeling the Bern?

The 2016 presidential election provides an ample supply of visual advertisements for
analyzing. This rhetorical analysis will consider a print advertisement from Bernie Sanders and
analyze it based on its effectiveness of convincing the target audience to vote for Sanders. The
advertisement was printed in multiple newspapers in northwestern Iowa on November 11, 2015
(Veterans Day).

Figure 1: Bernie Sanders Veterans Day Print Advertisement (Sanders, 2015)

First, before one attempts to analyze the rhetorical qualities of this advertisement, it is
important to identify the target audience. By default, one is able to identify that Iowa is the
geographic target. Iowa tends to be the focus of much political attention due to its famous
caucus, so it is particularly interesting to analyze how each candidate attempts to reach this
politically-flooded atmosphere. According to V.V.B. (2016), Iowans are overwhelmingly white,
of German and Scandinavian stock, and conservatively Christian (par. 1). This is important to
note because Iowans are not representative of the rest of the United States, so it can be assumed
that the candidates will use different strategies than usual to appeal to this demographic. One can
deduce that given the decline in printed newspapers, the audience is narrowed to those who
continue to read them (generally older people). Given that this was published on Veterans Day
and contains information relevant to veterans, supporters of veterans are the specific audience.
As was stated earlier, Iowans are important to politicians because the Iowa Caucus is the first
opportunity to identify leaders of the presidential race. This advertisement is not merely a
statement, but an argument for political support.
When considering the rhetorical effectiveness of this argument, these rhetorical tools will
be used: Aristotles logos and ethos, Lupton and Ehsess (1988) list of rhetorical figures, and
structural formatting of the advertisement. When combined, these tools effectively reach the
target audience to create a cohesive and convincing argument.
By definition, logos is an appeal to reason. This type of appeal often cites quantifiable
data like statistics, quotes, or drawings in an attempt to appear logical (Lupton & Ehses, 1988, p.
7). Sanders advertisement attempts to appeal to logos by stating the amount of money required
to maintain the war effort: six trillion dollars. Whether this monetary amount is correct or not is
left for the audience to decide, because Sanders does not cite where he obtains this information.

However, this failure to accurately cite a statistic does not take away from the rhetorical
usefulness of the appeal to logos in the argument. The United States is spending a lot of money
on the war efforts, so it should be able to spend money to take care of its veterans. From this, one
can derive a logical syllogism:
Premise: The United States has money to spend on the war.
Premise: The care for veterans is directly related to the war.
Conclusion: The United States is able to spend money to take care of veterans.
Presented in this way, the proposed action plan seems like a rational and logical solution. If the
audience members were to think more critically about this proposed solution to the problem of
veteran after-war care, they would likely be left with questions. Where would the extra few
billion dollars come from? Would that be enough money to address the issues of veterans? If
the United States already cant afford the war, how will spending additional money affect the
economic situation? In this advertisement, the attempt to appeal to logos has superficially
succeeded, but upon a deeper analysis, it fails to actually address the issue of veteran care and
how it will be implemented. However, given that the audience members are likely not political
scientists or economists, this appeal would be an effective way to convince the audience that
Sanders is a rational thinker. Casual readers of the newspaper who hold conservative values
(likely related to supporting the American troops) will likely enjoy this superficial appeal to
logos and consider voting for Sanders.
An appeal to ethos is an attempt to establish the authors credibility, or a way to establish
the audiences trust of the rhetor (Lupton & Ehses, 1988, p. 7). Appealing to ethos is important
for presidential candidates, because asking people to vote for a candidate is asking the people to
put their trust in the candidate to govern the country. The appeal to ethos present in this

advertisement is subtly placed throughout the argument. First, the picture at the top of the
document shows Sanders walking with his supporters. This has the ability to make him appear
more credible because it proves that he has enthusiastic followers who are willing to publically
endorse him. The people in the picture seem very representative of the targeted audience: older,
white everyday citizens. If the audience can see themselves represented in this advertisement,
they can relate to it on a personal level. Sanders is accepted by the people shown in the picture,
so he appears likely to fit with the audiences beliefs. Typography, defined by Phillips and
McQuarrie in Figure 2, is a combination of richness and complexity of the visual.

Figure 2: Typology of visual rhetoric showing classification of ad samples (Phillips &

McQuarrie, 2004, p. 116)

The picture in this advertisement fits into the categories of connection and juxtaposition. The
connection aspect identifies the argument that Sanders is like the people of Iowa. The
juxtaposition portion of the argument is that Sanders is displayed side-by-side with the Iowans.

According to Phillips and McQuarrie (2004), the combination of connection and

juxtaposition does not create an extremely rich nor complex argument. Though more complex
arguments tend to linger in the audiences mind, this argument does not need to stay longer than
the Iowa Caucus (from November to February), so in this case it is more important that the point
of the advertisement is clear and simple. The other appeal to ethos, though small, is very
powerful. The very bottom of the advertisement says: Paid for by Bernie 2016 (Not the
Billionaires). Members of the audience are likely not billionaires and do not want to be
associated with big money. Here, Sanders is proving that he doesnt need to depend on bribes or
handouts to be successful. He works hard to spread his message, just like the farmers do in Iowa
with their livestock and crops. Once again, he appeals to ethos by establishing that he is relatable
to the audience. The overall appeal to ethos is very successful in this advertisement. Sanders
attempts to show that he will fit in with Iowans values, and he absolutely succeeds with the
target audience.
Lupton and Ehses (1988) address multiple rhetorical figures that can be used to craft a
convincing argument. The most obvious rhetorical figure used in this advertisement is
periphrasis. They define this concept as a circumlocution, [using] well-known attributes or
euphemisms to talk around a subject, rather than naming it directly (p. 10). This rhetorical tool
is extremely useful when working with limited amounts of space and complicated topics. In the
Sanders advertisement, government spending and wartime debt is a complicated issue that needs
more than a simple sentence or newspaper ad to solve. However, this is an issue deemed
important to the audience, thus deserving attention. Instead of addressing all of the issues related
to veteran aftercare, he circumvents the issue by simplifying the situation and saying that he
would give a few billion dollars to the veterans. This is useful because he doesnt have the

time or space to explain his specific plan, but problematic because it may raise further questions,
thus threatening his credibility. However, given that the audience members are casual readers
and not expected to think too critically about the issue, this advertisement succeeds because it
briefly informs the readers about Sanders opinions on veterans without having to think too
deeply about it. Because political campaigns deal with a multitude of complex issues, brevity is
much appreciated and deemed necessary for the everyday American. The rhetorical tool of
periphrasis works extremely well with the given audience and the timeframe for action.
As a whole, the structural formatting of this advertisement is different from other
candidates advertisements. Like others, it uses red, white, and blue appeal to the audiences
assumed values of patriotism. What sets this advertisement apart from others is its minimalistic
approach. The majority of political advertisements include a lot of textual information, while
Sanders instead opts to use a short quote and picture to communicate his message.

Figure 3: Donald Trumps 2016 Iowan advertisement (Trump, 2016)

Considering that Iowans are overrun with political advertisements during this time, standing out
from the crowd with a unique style is pertinent. Sanders uses a fair amount of whitespace (when
compared to opponents) to create an uncluttered, simple feeling. This is a stark contrast from the
advertisement seen in Figure 3. He does not attack his opponents characters, instead sticking to
his own political ideologies and he uses a picture of himself with everyday Americans to
represent that he too is a member of the country. The different layout makes Sanders stand out
from his competition because his approach surprises his audience by veering away from the
stereotypical political advertisement. In this way, his advertisement succeeds.
The purpose of this advertisement is simple: to convince the people of Iowa to vote for
Bernie Sanders. Sanders clearly designed this advertisement with his specific audience in mind,
so he chooses rhetorical strategies that work well with the demographics and beliefs of his
audience. He uses a simple appeal to logos to convince the audience that he is rational and he
succeeds with that appeal because the audience is overrun with complex political information
and may be seeking a simple solution. He appeals to ethos to establish his credibility and he
succeeds with that appeal because he presents himself as an everyday American like the
audience members. He uses periphrasis to avoid going too deeply into the issue of veteran care,
which is important because he has limited space. Finally, he uses minimalism to make his
advertisements different from his competitors advertisements. Though this advertisement would
not be successful on a country-wide scale, it works exceptionally well with the small audience of
Iowans.

References
Lupton, E., & Ehses, H. (1988). Rhetorical handbook: An illustrated manual for graphic
designers. Halifax, Nova Scotia: Design Division Nova Scotia College of Art and
Design.
Phillips, B., & McQuarrie, E. (2004). Beyond visual metaphor: A new typology of visual rhetoric
in advertising. Marketing Theory, 4(1/2), 116. doi:10.1177/1470593104044089
Sanders, B. (2015, November 11). [Advertisement for Bernie Sanders 2016 campaign]. Des
Moines Register.
Trump, D. (2016, January 31). Our principles PAC [Advertisement]. Des Moines Register.
V.V.B. (2016, January 31). Why Iowa is so important in the presidential election. The
Economist. Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/blogs/economistexplains/2016/02/economist-explains