Here's To Your Health Analysis

In Joan Dunayer’s, “Here’s to Your Health” she attempts to contrast the “glamorous myths” about alcohol advertisement. Specifically those alcohol advertisement that are presented by U.S. media, and popular culture to what Dunayer considers to be “factual data”. Throughout she offers counterexamples to each of the presented alcohol advertisement by using “factual data” to plays on the readers’ common knowledge, but gives no sources. Dunayer try to strength of her argument on society’s acceptance of alcohol and the media’s prolific showing alcohol ads when she says, “more than 300,000 alcohol commercials appeared on U.S. television”, this agreement sound logically but her statements are addressed to a very specific audience or reader (Dunayer).

Such quotes as “In the work force alcoholics are frequently late … and often get fired” is flawed much in the same way as Jean Kilbourne’s’, “Two Ways a Woman can get Hurt: Advertising and Violence”. Kilbourne tries to use “real ads” in her article to prove that advertising could hurt woman. Kilbourne’s uses of quotes like “violent images contribute to a state of terror.” (431) are an attempt to prove how aggressively woman are treated in advertising. Dunayer like Kilbourne doesn’t proved the reader with any sources but tell us the reader they are “real ads”. The lack of sources hurts both Kilbourne and Dunayer in their attempts to make a reader evaluate their agreements using a logos strategy. Thus nether Kilbourne or Dunayer can convince or win people over to their side of the argument and also makes their arguments counterproductive, aggressive and even distracting.

Dunayer also tries to use the rhetorical strategy of hyperbole or impression by extravagant exaggeration. Her argument that “In 2005 more than 300,000 alcohol commercials appeared on U.S. television.” is exactly that an extravagant exaggeration. A reader would simply need to look at Figure 1, (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health) below. Clearly Figure 1: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public

A look at her last sentence which reads “For alcohol’s victims ‘Here’s to your health” rings with irony when accompanied by the clink of liquor glasses.” and use of “U.S. society encourages drinking” which a the read encounters early on in the reading (Dunayer). All a reader would have to do is look at Europe where in most countries minors those under the legal drinking age can legally drink alcohol as long as it is provided to free of charge. That means the minor(s) can shares a beer or alcoholic beverage with their parents or friends who is of age. Now that is a “society which encourages drinking” but it also has very strict drinking laws with harsh punishments’ for wrongful use i.e.