Superhero's Argumentative Essay

This advertisement from the Biotest claims that you can be a lifesaving superhero and earn money while you are at it, except, of course, if you’re gay. Biotest Plasma Donation Center in Brookings, South Dakota gives people the opportunity to donate their plasma and receive an incentive of an average of thirty dollars for their donation. One major issue with Biotest’s donor requirements is that it rules out many possible donors by singling out homosexual men claiming that they have a higher risk of sexually transmitted diseases than their heterosexual peers. Additionally, their advertisement uses many tactics to try and recruit donors using purposely misleading wording as well as a flashy illustration depicting a superhero. First, we are going

For example, the ad creates a depiction of the average comic book superhero, complete with washboard abs, skintight leotard, flowing cape, and a very revealing set of bright blue briefs. This depiction relates well to a passage from Susan Bordo in her essay titled “Reading Bodies,” in her essay she makes the claim “Revealing the basic outline of the male legs and genitals… meant the male body was a more utilitarian, “authentic,” no-nonsense, truthful body” (Bordo 109-113). Her statement relates to the superheroes attire in the ad, showing off how an honest, hardworking, and no-nonsense attitude can be represented by the skintight revealing clothing. The superhero in this ad represents the perfect archetype for many of the lifesaving defenders depicted in media today. Additionally, the superhero is not the only character on the page, joining him is an average looking male who appears to imagine himself as a caped crusader portrayed in a large comical thought bubble. The young male appears to be in his early to mid-twenties and is dressed in a very preppy plaid shirt. Designed to look like and represent the average male college student. The scene shown on the ad was designed to give the reader the idea that by donating plasma with us, you will be viewed and view yourself as the superhero inhabiting in our advertisement. Additionally, the ad uses a color scheme consisting mostly of red and black. Red is traditionally representative of power, strength, passion, energy, and determination which gives the advertisement an empowering and almost intimidating aura. The thick black lines and font are also used to help direct the reader’s attention to the important detail. Illustrating this is the large black font in the middle of the add with the attention-grabbing line “Earn as much as $340 this month & $100 this week!” while the seemingly less