Counterintuitivity

Visual Rhetoric Rewrite

0:01 The ad starts with an Asian man maybe 20-25 years old. He is on his phone about to sit on the couch alone. This indicates that he is still on his phone even when walking, so he is distracted. He seems to spend a lot of time texting. The phone is an iPhone 6 which means the ad is recent, maybe made a few years back. This can be his parents’ house considering there is an old-looking picture of a couple on the wall. Right behind him there is a picture on the wall of some type of building. There are little American flags in a vase full of flowers so it may be Independence Day or some sort of holiday. Even though he’s an Asian man, this indicates he lives in America. By the expression on his face, he looks upset at his phone. Maybe he received news that upset him. He is dressed in sweats probably because he’s chilling at home and doesn’t have anywhere to be.

0:02 He is still on his phone, but the background has changed. He is what looks like a library because there are books on shelves with labels on the binding of each book, yet he is not reading any of them since his phone is his distraction. His expression on his face remains the same. The position of the man’s face and head are in the same position for both the previous scene and this scene. His thumbs are both on the screen of his phone so he may be texting someone. He is probably in school because he is dressed in a more casual outfit than the first scene. He has books on the side of him, but fails to pay attention to them. He may be in a high school or college library, but that is besides the point. The important part in this scene is that it is targeting a younger audience.

0:03 Background change. He is once again alone still on his phone. I am starting to think that something really important is on his phone because the scene has switched to him working out doing sit-ups at the gym. He is wearing a workout outfit with a yellow-colored headband. He may be at a public gym or his school gym. The equipment behind him are colored red and yellow which leads me to think this can be a school gym that is represented with those colors since his headband matches. He still has the same face as all the other seconds.

0:04 Background change. Now he is in what seems like a food court. He is not eating. He is sitting next to someone that looks around the same age as him even though we can’t see the face. This shows the viewer that the man in all the other scenes is the main focus. It may be his friend. There are other people in the scene except they seem unimportant in the background. I guess what the director is trying to say that even in social situations this man doesn’t interact besides being on his phone. Again, he still has the same face expression. It seems that having people in the background adds more of an effect to his isolation, and the significant distraction his phone is causing.

0:05 Background change. He is still positioned at the middle of the screen. There is a cupcake with a candle on it signifying that it is his birthday, but he still on his phone (no surprise here). His face is the same as in all the other scenes. He seems to be at a kitchen table in a house. Now there are other people in the scene. To the left of him, there are two girls. Maybe his friends or one of them can be his girlfriend. One of their faces is shown. Maybe that is important for a later scene in the video. She is caught glancing at his phone. To the right of him, it looks like they can be his parents just because they are right next to him while they sing “Happy Birthday.” He can be taking a picture of the cupcake, but it seems like he is still texting. This just shows that even though he has friends and family looking at him, he remains on his phone. Even at big events in his life like a birthday, it seems that whatever is on his phone is more important.

0:06 Background change. This scene is kind of random and out of place. He is on a carousel, still on his phone and still with the same expression. Now I’m starting to wonder if maybe whatever is on his phone is just the same thing because his face hasn’t changed at all since the beginning. He’s the only person in this scene, but the carousel most likely represents the world and the people moving around him, yet he is still distracted on whatever is on his phone.

0:07 Background change. Now he is sitting on a couch, but a different one from the first second. The house may be different too. The girl that had her face shown in the birthday scene is next to him with her arm on his shoulder. You can see her glancing at his phone. This is probably his girlfriend considering she is wondering what is on his phone. I now think he may be a little younger than 20 since she looks pretty young. It looks like she is saying something, but he is just ignoring her while he still looks at his phone. The director probably chose to make the girl speak to show that he doesn’t even notice or acknowledge that she is there. So whatever is on his phone must be more important than what she is saying. There are plants, a box that says “24 Bars” and balls or what look like ornaments either on top or in it. Based on my personal experience, this can be an Asian household since stereotypically, Asians have a lot of plants in their house. So this may still be his house.

0:08 Background change. It is just him in the scene. The viewpoint is from the inside of a fridge. The man looks like he is closing it. But you can see him still on his phone.

0:09 Background change. The scene is kind of dark. It looks like he is in bed. I think the director did this on purpose to show that he is still on his phone because you can see the light reflecting off his face. So far, the point of view looking at the man is the same in each second. Although he is laying on his side, his body is still in the same position and alignment as the other scenes. The light from the phone sort of makes a spotlight on the boy because everywhere around him is dark.

0:10 Background change. He is on an elevator going up, and is now wearing a jacket. So maybe this indicates the season change. He is still on his phone after all this time has passed. His thumbs are still on the screen so he is still texting someone. The brand of his hat is blurred out to maybe focus the viewer’s attention to only the boy to eliminate minor details like the brand. He is still positioned in the middle of the screen.

0:11 Background change and still in the middle of the screen in the same position as the previous scenes. He is at a party it looks like because of the lights and people around him. He is in fact still on his phone. This shows that even in the most social place to talk to people, he still has his face in his phone. There is a guy to the right of him and it looks like he is having a good time with a smile on his face.

0:12 Background change and still positioned in the middle. He is back at the same gym he was earlier. He is still on his phone, but now he is not the one doing the workout. He’s not in the same outfit as the other gym scene because he doesn’t have the yellow headband. Maybe he is too distracted on his phone to even put on the headband. It seems that he is supposed to be the spotter for the person lifting weights on the bench in from of him. The face of the person in the front of him is not shown, again to focus the attention on the boy. He isn’t paying attention at all because his attention is somewhere else, his phone.

0:13 Background change and still in the middle of the screen. He is back in the same mall he was at earlier. This looks like the same exact scene because he is wearing the same exact outfit and the people in the background are the same. Also, his friend next to him is wearing the same thing. He is still on his phone.

0:14-0:15 It is a fast compilation of all the previous seconds of the boy on his phone and in the different settings. The purpose of this little part of the video was probably to go through all the different backgrounds, yet the boy remains the same. He is still in the middle of the screen, while looking down at his phone, texting.

0:16 He’s in his car now, but it looks like he’s about to do something with his phone. He has it in one hand. It looks like it was a transfer from one hand to the other. Now that he’s about to drive, I guess he realizes that this is the time for him to get off his phone. The camera angle has changed positions now. It is a side view of the boy. His face isn’t shown just the neck down. He is in front of a house. It can be his house or someone else’s. But he is definitely in a neighborhood because there’s a house right next to the other one, and what appears to be the house number. It may be the holiday season because there is a wreath hanging on the door, but that may just be a decoration.

0:17-0:18 This scene is of a closeup of his phone. The phone is on a seat, which means it’s not in his hands. He may have thrown it there to show that he doesn’t text and drive. It shows a conversation in his text messages. The whole text conversation is blurred out except for two messages. The other person sending a message to him goes “Alright come over.” He ends the conversation with “Ok. Driving now so I’ll ttyl.” The phone is not turned off purposefully so that viewers can read the message that the video is trying to convey and the literal messages on the phone. When not looking at the video in real time on TV, you can read the messages of the conversation by pausing the video. The other person is talking about a video, which maybe the one we’re watching now considering they included a traffic light emoji with their text, which means it has something to do with driving. Instead of the man saying “I’ll ttyl”, he also includes “driving now” to shift the focus of the meaning of this video. The message is most likely not to text and drive.

0:19-0:20 The car is kind of blurry meaning that the it is in motion. It is probably his car because the last scene was him in the car. The words “NOT HERE” appears in white.

0:21 The words “Never here” appear in a text message format right underneath the “NOT HERE.” I guess this is to remind to not to TEXT and drive since the message is in a bubble like an iPhone message. The background is of the boy’s car driving away out of a neighborhood.

0:22-0:23 Then the message is finally revealed “Don’t text and drive” with the word text in blue to show the importance of that word. Again, the same background as the last scene except he has just moved farther along the road.

0:24 The video fades to a black screen to indicate the ending of the video.

Afterword The fact that the boy was at the center of every screen was a good idea. It put the focus all on him to show he was the main character of this video. It also helped that he was doing the same exact thing with the same exact expressions, which was texting on his phone with a neutral face. I feel like the audio wouldn’t have been needed because the message of the video was pretty clear without it. After re-watching the ad with volume, I realized it was mostly just clicking of the keyboard on the phone, which I already heard in my head without the audio the first time.