Editorial Cartoon Analysis

EDITORIAL CARTOON ANALYSIS
Name: Suzanne Miller                        Date:4/30
1. What is the event or issue that inspired the cartoon?  The influence that commercials have over our buying power.
2. Are there any real people or places in the cartoon? If not, what images are portrayed in the cartoon?  There is a generic man, but the main characters of this cartoon are the aliens.
3. Identify the specific artistic techniques used in the cartoon (i.e., symbolism, analogy, exaggeration, labeling, and irony). What is the artist trying to show the reader by using these techniques?  The artist uses exaggeration and irony.  The artist use exaggeration by having the aliens pick up the TV broadcast and their desire to buy a product advertised.  He uses irony by having the commercial product be the thing that sticks out from our TV broadcast as opposed to the news or other more important ideas.
4. What is the cartoonist's point of view about the topic portrayed in the cartoon? Give examples to support your interpretation.  He thinks that commercial advertising is too influential.  Aliens come all the way to our planet just to buy some steak knives.
5. Is this cartoon persuasive? Explain why or why not. No, because it is trying to show the persuasive power that advertising has over people (or aliens), not trying to be persuasive itself.
6. What other techniques could the artist have used to make this cartoon more persuasive?  Have the man be the president showing that advertising products are more important and influential than the "most important man in America and possibly the world."