Jimmy Carter’s 1976 “Reality” ad was my favorite for a few reasons. In this ad, Carter calls out republicans who he feels are using their ads to ignore the problems of America and act like everything is going perfectly. He points out the flaws he sees and claims that he, with help of the citizens, will address them.

The ad had no music and was very straight forward. I like how he mentioned his competition and directly countered them with his words. He also used fear tactics by saying all of the horrible things that were happening, like crime rates going up or schools shutting down, without giving any real numbers or statistics.

Watching these ads, I can see why Carter was elected. He comes off as a relatable American, but also a strong leader. I think his southern voice, simple vernacular, and even the way he dresses in some of the ads contribute to his relatableness. In this ad, he sounds strong and is dressed like a president. He looks like a classic example of a leader and this probably gave a lot of people the comfort to vote for him.

My favorite ad is an NFL Play 60 ad encouraging kids to get 60 minutes of exercise a day. It stars NFL quarterback Cam Newton and a small child. The ad uses humor to get its point across and for this reason is very memorable. I think that is one of the biggest things advertisers should consider is how well people can remember their ad.  This ad aired years ago and I still remember it, so they accomplished their task.

This ad mainly uses comedy to get its point across. It could possibly be using ad populum as well because it is trying to make it seem like every kid that exercises will grow up to be the next Cam Newton. Still, by using comedy, they get away with it and it is an effective ad.

I think this is a very interesting experiment and it is one I have discussed with some of my other classes. In that class we questioned whether or not this experiment should have ever even been done. Basically, from a moral standpoint, was the data collected worth the suffering and psychological effects everyone involved had to endure. Personally, I don’t think it was worth it and I think similar data could have been collected in a better way. I understand it is almost impossible to simulate a prison environment, but I think the experimenters went too deep with this one.

Regardless, it is a very interesting experiment to think about and how easily people can be manipulated. It makes me question how we treat people because even know the guards knew they could have easily been prisoners, some of them still chose to treat the prisoners very harshly.

I think it is important for us to know the different ways of gathering evidence so that we can better judge information we are taking in. Specifically for this class, it will help us determine whether someone is making a good argument. If someone is using data gathered from poor research methods, we will be able to see that and judge the argument accordingly. However, if the research methods were sound, we will have an easier time trusting the research used to back up the argument. Each research method has limitations, so it important to apply the right one for the right situation,

I thought looking at SSSs in the second article was very interesting because this is where we can see leadership in its most natural state in my opinion. It sort of connects to the first reading and naturalistic observation because people in LSSs know they are being observed in a way and take on leadership roles for much different reasons. But the reasons people become leaders in SSSs explain a lot about human nature and our natural tendencies. These are things we should be aware of and keep in mind when examining leadership.

It is interesting to think about all seven of these dilemmas because we can all think of examples in our day to day lives where we see them happening in front of us, but most of the time they are left unchecked. I can think of this in my own life because I am aware that meat industry is a huge contributor to climate change, but I don’t want to be the one to volunteer myself to stop eating meat or even reduce consumption. To me, this shows that even though as humans we are highly logical, we are still far from perfect. The battle of the sexes dilemma is is another good example of this because the things we can get caught up can be so trivial and yet still prevent us from reaching the best possible outcomes in society.