Wells Fargo Ad Analysis

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Wells Fargo is a well known financial corporation that has existed for as long as some can remember. They have donated millions of dollars to “support the arts, culture, and education” of the arts field in general. (Calvey). This is what caused such an outrage when they released an ad in late September of 2016 depicting a female teenager smiling with the words, “A ballerina yesterday. An engineer today” looming over the bottom left corner of the ad itself. This sparked such controversy over the advertisement was presented for Teen Financial Education Day, as it was interpreted that as arts career is not a serious career field like one in the sciences, such as engineering, and the components of this ad support this. The ad itself is focused …show more content…

The clothing that the girl is wearing is a white shirt and a light teal jacket. White can be interpreted as purity and innocence while the teal as happy and enjoyment/contentment. The purity and innocence part represents the innocence of the young girl from when she wanted to be a ballerina until she realized that an engineer would be a “better” career. The happiness represents the satisfaction with her change in fields, as one in the sciences is better than one in the arts. Also, there is an orange text box as mentioned before, and orange is associated with joy, success, and encouragement which represents again the satisfaction of changing fields and the success of the science career over the arts career. The color choice of this ad unconsciously sends messages to the viewer upon coming across …show more content…

One of the most obvious fallacies is a logical fallacy. This is understood because the company is choosing what is a better career for the child, as she is leaving the arts for something in the sciences. Logically speaking, a child should choose whatever career makes them happy not what other people support more or what makes more money in the long run. There is an appeal to popular opinion in this ad, as many people believe that a career in the sciences is better than one in the arts, and this is when the arts is “yesterday” and the science is “today.” There is no scientific proof to support the claim that one field is better or more beneficial than the other, but many people still believe that science is better than