Rhetorical Analysis Of David Sirota's Kenneth Cole Gets Schooled

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Sirota Shortly before the controversial billboard was taken down just a couple of days later, an article written by David Sirota, titled “ Kenneth Cole Gets Schooled” appeared in the liberal political and current affairs website, Salon. In this writing, he criticizes the fashion designer Kenneth Cole and his company’s use of adopting a slogan that dealt with a national debate over unions, particularly teachers, in hopes of capitalizing off of the public’s reaction and response. By exploring the factors that explains the formation of the union such as the education system and accountability, Sirota’s article displays a firm but biased and partial argument in the importance of unions and their role in the education system.
A strength within the essay lies in his varied choice of rhetorical strategies. Before he asserts his stance on Cole’s campaign, Sirota gives the audience a background on the history of unions, which is often interpreted by the media as a violent, animalistic group. In the ad, Sirota described Cole’s method as a way of making the topic into a “consumer brand” while also pitching the idea of an anti-union image
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The first exposure of his liberal perspective comes into view when he further describes the campaign’s slogan as “the same loaded language as the conservative political activists”, immediately giving the readers the conclusion that he is of the opposing side (Sirota 760). And while the target is more directed towards the same political party he is in, the choice of words within this paragraph makes his point less credible because the display of his biasedness is blunt. It is not wrong for a writer to have a preference when it comes to certain things however, but in the context of trying to persuade the readers and audience to see reason, it may come off as a personal attack to those who differ from his

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