The president emailing my teacher seems absolutely absurd. However, someone who claims to be Barack Obama sent an email to my teacher nevertheless. From a rhetorical standpoint this seems to be a good attempt at convincing those with questionable intelligence at donating to the cause of re-electing Obama. It is a good thing the recipient of this email is smart enough to realize that the real author of this email is probably not Obama. The author is most likely someone employed on his campaign team. The text itself is rather vague, but this draws in those curious into reading more about the donation and increases the possibility of them donating. As for the actual donation the price is rather odd. It is strange that they want $3 to be the minimum donation. I'm sure there is some reasoning behind this, but I can't figure out why. Finally signing it with just the first name of Barack seems to tell that he is trying to connect with the reader at a more personal level, but depending on the person this would cause them to have doubts on the validity of the email.
No matter how many time I read the email it just seems that
something is off about it. Since it is in a more casual style I think that more
people would be willing to donate, but to an intelligent person (unless they
already support Obama) they would not donate because they wouldn’t believe that
the president is actually emailing them. This email would certainly appeal to
those who believe Obama himself is emailing them due to the recipient feeling
important enough to get an email from the president. This email seems more and
more to look like a piece targeting those with weak analytical thinking
abilities. If Obama wants money from them then this is the best way to go about
doing so in an email format, but if he wants it from intelligent people it is
better to be more honest about whom the author really is and to be upfront
about why the donation is important. It is obvious that the target audience is
not someone like Ms. Jarmer, but is rather someone who would not make this a
class assignment. The fact that she made it a class assignment shows that the
actual audience to this email did not fall for the obvious ploys it was conceived
of.
-Codie Rome (403)
I definately agree with what you have said in your post. There's no way the email was written from Barack Obama. Also, for the email to ask for 3 dollars is kinda random, especially since they never explained why or what the donation was going towards. The whole email was just way too short and plain. For it to be "signed" by Barack Obama is just an attempt from the author to try to make the reader feel special, and to make them believe that it really came from the president. I also agree with what you stated about how if they wanted to gain more donations from an intelligent audience, then they should of included more information in their email. Maybe this could of caused more people to donate towards the cause. Overall, I think the email was unproffesional and should of required more text and body to it, rather than just "please donate 3 dollars."
ReplyDeleteCodie, I agree with your statement about the strangeness of the email from ‘President Obama’. If the intent is to have people donate, there should be more information about what it is being used for. What also gets my attention is the very strange amount that is specifically asked for. Why it is three dollars is what they want? I think that your right about the use of the word friend and that if a person has questionable intelligence or may be actually thinks that this is Obama, would respond and donate to something that could be a total spam thing as well.
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