Assignment Overview:

I’ve developed this activity for my ENG 101 courses, which I currently teach on the theme of food and culture. In Fall 2023, I will participate in LaGuardia’s Humanitarian Initiative (the theme for the academic year 2022-23 is Food/Food Insecurity/Hunger/Environment affecting Food), and I hope to develop more OER assignments.

To prepare students for writing argumentative essays on food related issues, we will read “Chapter 7: Argumentation” from the OER textbook Empoword, which is featured on the English Department’s website: https://pdx.pressbooks.pub/empoword/chapter/unknown/

The chapter introduces Aristotelian and Rogerian arguments and explains logos, pathos, and ethos. It also includes activities such as an op-ed rhetorical analysis.

To further our understanding of argumentative writing, we will study two sample essays.

• The first, “Carnivore Consumption Killing Climate,” is included in “Chapter 7: Argumentation”
  • https://pdx.pressbooks.pub/empoword/chapter/unknown/.
    
• The second is an annotated student sample essay on food and sustainability from the OpenStax textbook Writing Guide with Handbook:
  • https://openstax.org/books/writing-guide/pages/12-4-annotated-student-sample-healthy-diets-from-sustainable-sources-can-save-the-earth-by-lily-tran

In our analysis of these two student samples, we will pay particular attention to the ways in which the authors make use of logos, pathos, and ethos to persuade their audience. To deepen our understanding of these rhetorical strategies, we will perform a rhetorical analysis of the Burger King commercial Whopper Virgins:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QP5pWBz8zyo

Here are the instructions for the students: Rhetorical Analysis of Whopper Virgins Advertising Campaign

As you watch this Burger King ad, write down your observations. Pay attention to the ways in which the information is presented (as in a written argument, the makers of the video want to persuade you of something). How do they do this? What rhetorical and aesthetic choices do they make (consider the data shared, clothing, music, setting, etc.)?

Afterwards, you will share your observations in small groups and respond to the following questions:

• Explain the title. Who are the “Whopper Virgins”? Consider the implications of the term “virgins” in the context of the video.
• What is the overall purpose of the video?
• Who is the audience for this video, and how does the video appeal to its audience? How is the information presented (identify instances of logos, pathos, and ethos)? Consider the fact that this commercial is presented as a “documentary.” What is a documentary, and in how far does this video follow the conventions of a documentary? Where does it digress from these conventions? To what effect?
• Consider the impact of spreading American fast food across the globe. What is gained? What is lost?
  

This activity will prepare students to write an argumentative essay on the subject of food. One of the prompts will reconnect with the Whopper Virgins ad campaign:

In the Burger King commercial Whopper Virgins, the hamburger is presented as an American phenomenon. Do you think that campaigns like Whopper Virgins or the Tang/Fruit Treasure ad described in Yiyun Li’s “Orange Crush” are representative of American culture? Do you support such promotions of American food culture? Why? Why not?