Project 1 Final

Mitra, S., Narain, A., Naid, R., & Kulkarni, S. D. (2010).   A QUASI ONE-DIMENSIONAL METHOD AND RESULTS FOR STEADY ANNULAR/STRATIFIED SHEAR AND GRAVITY DRIVEN CONDENSING FLOWS.  In The International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer (2010). Minkowycz, W. (Ed.)

All the articles in the International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer appear to use the APA format for its citations, as the list of sources at the end of the journal is titled “References.”  Although the journal uses the APA format for the reference page, it appears to have missed the alphabetical listing of sources according to the author’s name.  This error could show a lack of knowledge or commitment to properly citing sources in the field of Mechanical Engineering.  The in text citations in the International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer don’t appear to follow either MLA or APA format.  Instead of using the standard format of the author’s last name and a page number in parenthesis, this journal simply puts the number of the references it is referring to.  This format of citing sources could lead to many simple errors by the reader when trying to correlate which resource has been referenced. The journal also has a separate reference section for figures which further explains each figure in the text.

Narain, A., & Kivisalu, M.T. (2010).  Fluorescence and Fiber Optics Based Real-Time Thickness Sensor for Dynamic Liquid Films.  In the ASME Journal of Heat Transfer (2010).  ASME.

The ASME Journal of Heat Transfer uses the same abbreviated APA style as the International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, assigning each source a number on the reference page and using only that number as an in text citation.  The one thing the ASME Journal of Heat Transfer does differently than the International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer is that it does not have a separate reference section for figures and charts.  Any figures and pictures in this journal are simply titled and described only on the page in which they appear.  This seems to be a more efficient way to title and describe figures because less page turning has to be done to obtain all of the available information.

Narain, Amitabh.  Personal Interview.  10 September, In person.

According to Dr. Amitabh Narain, Mechanical Engineers aren’t expected to use any specific kind of citation style.  He said he believes that either MLA or APA are deemed as acceptable ways for engineers to cite their sources, but that over the years he has developed his own personal style that he got from many of the journals in his specific field of energy and heat transfer.  Dr. Narain described the style of just using numbers as in text citations as the style he was most comfortable with.  He also admitted that he and many other engineers are not very up to date about specifically using MLA or APA citations, and that not much attention is paid to it.  In short, as long as credit is given where credit is due, there are no issues due to using the wrong citation style within the major of mechanical engineering.

 

Project 2 Final

The issue of proper compensation of collegiate athletes has become a very intriguing subject as of late due to many different reasons.  In the article “Should Student Athletes Get Paid?” Stephanie Sturgill and Dr. Steve Chen weigh the pros and cons of paying student athletes.  They base these claims on universities responsibilities to give all students the best possible education.  The article is essentially arguing that although a select few of these athletes do become highly paid professionals, people must not forget that a large majority of them never achieve this level of fame and financial surplus.  They bring up the point that many student athletes are just average college students looking for a way to pay for school.  Sturgill and Chen take a largely unbiased stance by suggesting several viable possibilities to resolve this controversy, however, they do still manage to get their opinion across that student athletes should not be paid for playing sports.

Although the controversy over student athletes being paid is a relatively new idea, the matter could become very controversial if it is left unaddressed.  This issue has become more pressing as more and more student athletes are found guilty of taking bribes from professional sports agencies while they are still in college.  The most recent example of this happening resulted in enormous penalties for both the athlete and the school when former USC running back Reggie Bush was found guilty of accepting bribes.  After a series of investigations and reviews by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Bush was forced to give back the prestigious Heisman Trophy he won while playing for USC and the school was banned from post-season play for two years.  “Should Student Athletes Get Paid” addresses a large number of possibilities to solve these controversies while firmly reminding the athletes and their parents that the point of any student going to college is to earn a degree.  The largest issue hindering everyone from coming to a unanimous decision is the fact that some athletes become paid professionals.  In general the 99% of athletes that end up graduating with a degree to earn a living in something other than sports get stereotyped into the category of wealthy professional athletes as well.  This causes a large misunderstanding in the general public, who assume any student that is gifted in sports should have no problem paying for school whatsoever.

The argument proposed by Sturgill and Chen is a somewhat logical one; that collegiate athletes should continue to follow the current NCAA ruling that “student-athletes shall be amatures” (Martin, 2002).  They suggest that the NCAA should continue current policies like the one in place to allow student athletes to hold on campus jobs that earn them up to $2000 per year to spend on academics.  They bring up the fact that “when monetary rewards are given, the athlete is then a professional,” to support their viewpoint (Sturgill, 2).  They also appear to use Logos in the argument that they think athletic scholarships and special treatment with regards to missing class are more than enough of an incentive to keep these students in line.  The article does come to one absolute conclusion; that in order to completely solve the problem of agents bribing students, each professional sport agency must get involved.  Without the help of these agencies making their own regulations, the agents that give out illegal bribes will never be punished, and thus never stop.  This coupled with the fact that athletes have yet to suffer from any punishment for accepting bribes until after they graduate leads students to act irrationally because they don’t feel threatened by any immediate punishment.  Essentially, the rules that pertain to students receiving illegal bribes must be made as public as possible.

The article also has some very effective Pathos when it brings up a survey done on a group of (non-athlete) college students on whether or not they would support the payment of the members of their school’s athletic teams.  The final results of the survey showed that a majority of those questioned “supported the idea of paid athletes,” showing that the athletic programs at colleges are a very important part of student life in college (Sturgill, 6).  The students interviewed even said they would be willing to pay higher tuition costs if the extra money went towards the athletes.  This willingness to help proves that athletic teams are a very important part of life for many college students today.

The article refrains from further use of Pathos to maintain a non-biased feeling, and even brings up the Logos of one of the opposing viewpoints.  They address the point of some sports fans who think college athletes should be justly compensated for all the revenue they obtain for their schools.  Another good point is brought up to support the stance that athletes should be paid when Sturgill and Chen mention the problem of point shaving due to illegal payments.  Although this problem is not yet rampant, it would be possible for someone to pay a student in an attempt to change the outcome of a game.  However, this issue seems to be very situational, and exact monetary amounts could change from person to person.  In short, paying athletes would not completely eliminate this problem.

Overall “Should Student Athletes Get Paid?” does a very good job suggesting all available solutions to the problems regarding student athlete’s financial status.   Despite voicing that it is their opinion that college athletes absolutely should not get paid, they discuss a plethora of other options available to their readers.  Maintaining this non-biased stance gives the authors increased credibility to go along with their backgrounds in athletics and the Doctorate in Sports Management held by Steve Chen.  The only thing this argument seems to be lacking is a plan of attack to actually make the proposed changes into an official NCAA rule.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Sturgill, Stephanie; Chen, Steve.  “Should Student Athletes get Paid?” The Sport Digest.  United States Sports Academy, 2008.  Web.  13 October, 2010.

 

Martin, M. (2002, August 20). “NCAA limitations placed upon scholarship allocation hurt sports.” The Lantern. Retrieved April 21, 2008, fromhttp://media.www.thelantern.com/media/storage/paper333/news/2002/08/20/Sports/Ncaa-Limitations.Placed.Upon.Scholarship.Allocation.Hurt.Sports-261460-page2.shtml

 

Quiz 2

1. One of the examples of Lunsford’s statement in the book is the images used in political campaigns to portray candidates as good people.  Showing them interacting with children or participating in a charity event will make a much better advertisement of the candidate than showing them sitting on the couch watching TV.  Another example could be the old Uncle Sam army recruitment posters that portrayed fighting in the war for America as the greatest thing a person can do for our country.  Viewers opinion of the war could immediately change based on seeing this poster, and they could become excited about the war instead of unsure about it.

2. Analyzing a Visa Commercial: Visa created/directed the commercial to promote their credit card.  The commercial was seen on NBC during Sunday night football.  The images (video) is extremely flashy and exciting, promoting that if you make a purchase with this specific credit card you can win a trip to the super bowl every year for the rest of your life.  Both the creator and distributor of the commercial are trying to get people to sign up for the new visa card.  The aim of both parties is to make money.  The commercial uses visuals as well as sound and text to advertise the product.

3. Visual thinking, to me, is the understanding of something through image.  Visual thinkers are people who understand things much better by seeing them, and are more hands-on learners than people who don’t use visual thinking as much.

4. Visual literacy is the ability to make sense of something, or understand something, that is presented in the form of an image.  Essentially it is the ability to understand something without there being a written explanation.  We need visual literacy today more than ever because of the large amounts of multimodal sources people are exposed to.  The extensive amounts of media require a high amount of visual literacy just to decipher.  A good example of this is on the internet, where spam and random advertisements clutter most popular web pages so much that someone new to surfing the internet could get extremely confused.

5. Well designed web pages: www.tcgplayer.com, www.ebay.com, www.mtu.edu

Poorly designed web pages: www.myspace.com, www.facebook.com,

All of the well designed pages I found were very well organized, and somewhat colorful without over doing it.  The most important thing seems to be the placement of advertisements on the page.  I find facebook and myspace to have very poor ad placement, and that along with the sites themselves updating and changing every couple of weeks makes for a very cluttered page.  Ebay especially provides a fantastic example of good visual design by being organized.  The ads are very visible, but all off to the right side (right next to the picture of what you are looking to buy).  This makes the ads readable, but also keeps them consistently in the same place, and not too in-your-face.

6. Contrast- Having great contrast in a visual argument is very important so people understand what the main points of the argument are.  A good example of this is the Michigan tech school logo.  The black and gold colors used in the logo contrast sharply, and bring attention to it.  Repetition: A good example of repetition could be in an infomercial when the company/host repeats the amazingly cheap sale price, and the price is shown repetitively on the screen.  This strategy convinces prospective buyers that the advertised price must be a good one because it has been mentioned so many times.  Alignment: The organization and alignment of a visual argument is important to give the argument legitimacy, and to make it look professional.  Prospective buyers will be turned off by an add that is completely cluttered and randomly thrown about, but they will be attracted to a neat professional looking add.  Proximity: Again, the organization of an advertisement is very important.  If the entire add space is not used to its full potential, buyers will be turned off by a poor looking add.

7. I think visual rhetoric is very useful in someone’s ability to analyze a visual.  The ability to discern what point a visual is trying to make without an explanation is a very necessary skill in the world today.  Visual rhetoric allows viewers to analyze the visual based on the background knowledge of who created it, as well as the context the visual is in.  This could drastically change the meaning of any visual, and should always be considered when analyzing one.

8. The first thing to note when choosing a color scheme is to make sure the focal points of the visual are the brightest part, and that they stand out.  Choose a dim color or white as your background and a brighter more vibrant color for text to make it more legible.  Another aspect to consider is which colors evoke emotions from people.  An argument that is supposed to be sad or tragic should not be bright yellow and red, and on the same note a happy visual designed for children should not be black and threatening.

9. Visuals during presentations are a very necessary thing, but there is a fine line between a visual being helpful and a visual ruining an entire presentation.  Presenters need to use their visuals more as examples or references as opposed to using the visual as the entire presentation.  Many presenters make the error of putting more time into their visual than their actual presentation, and end up just reading off of a power point or poster, which makes the presentation very boring.  If the presenter actually thoroughly learns their topic, and picks visuals that support the information they are already presenting, visuals can be amazing tools in a presentation.

10. Saturated colors should be used in the main part of the visual argument that you want to stick out, or be most visible.  Muted colors should be used to accent the saturated colors, but are less bright and should be more in the background of the work.

11. Don’t ever let your power point lead your presentation.  Make sure there is not too much text on the power point, and don’t clutter the slides of the presentation.  Don’t use too many sounds or flashy motions that take away from the fact that you are the presenter, and the audience should be focused on you.

12. (Not 100% sure what this is asking, hope I did it right)   One of the main differences between reading something in print and reading something on the web is that in many situations a print source is going to be much more reliable.  When reading information from a printed, or hard copy, the sources are always listed somewhere on the book.  Many things read on the internet could have been posted by anyone (Wikipedia) and might not be very accurate.  People can also post things without citing where they found the information, another way they can get away with making up false information.

13. Academic arguments are a large collection of research and other compiled information organized by a researcher into a formal report.  They are written by experts to the peers of those experts, which gives the writer a lot of ethos.  Academic arguments contain very carefully written bibliographies that cite every source used very thoroughly.  They also often contain visuals to support the argument.

14. Multimodal composition is the best way to get your point across.  It is a culmination of using words, sounds, images and anything else at your disposal to back up your argument and persuade your audience to think like you are.  Good examples of multimodal compositions are youtube videos, posters, power point presentations, pressie presentations, and pretty much anything else you can think of.  As more technology is created, more and more different options come about for multimodal presentations, and creativity becomes ever more important.

 

Project 3

Abstract: This paper examines the negative effects of having and maintaining a virtual presence on a modern day college student’s life.  I have explored examples from modern media (television) that can shed some light on this issue, as well as various examples and definitions from internet sources that can better explain what a virtual presence is and how it deals with the new form of social networking.

In today’s society the pressure of maintaining a virtual presence is becoming more and more relevant in the lives of college students.  However, the growth of the importance of the virtual presence creates a very complex question: Should students (or anyone for that matter) treat others the same when communicating and interacting online as they would in real life?  The increase in technology as of late has led to people spending more and more time on the internet, and less time having face to face interactions with people.  This has slowly caused a change in the basic definition that “Social Networking is the grouping of individuals into specific groups,” because the phrase social networking now seemingly refers only to online interaction (citation).  Has this change in the meaning of a ‘social network’ altered how people in social networks interact with each other?

This question can be answered in a plethora of ways, but first the term “Virtual Presence” must be examined more in depth.  A person’s virtual presence reflects every public action they perform on the internet (citation).  Whenever two people talk to each other online, they are expanding their virtual presences.  Anything from chatting with instant messages, to sending an e-mail, posting a video on youtube, or creating a blog all affect everyone’s virtual presence.  It is essentially a collaboration of everything each person has done throughout their ‘career’ on the internet.

Now that the term virtual presence has been better defined, it can be more clearly seen why people could be persuaded to treat others differently when they are online as opposed to when they are making face to face contact.  The most obvious reason this happens is because on the internet, people are basically ‘hiding behind their computer screen.’  This phrase can be more completely understood when looking at an online forum as an example.  Online forums are completely open to the public, and there is a forum on the web somewhere that discusses pretty much everything.  As Matt Miller, a forum moderator on the website www.rctech.net points out, many of the posters that create problems on forums and break the established rules are not regular members.  They are usually new accounts created by someone who is already a member trying to hide who they really are.  This sort of situation arises because many forums, like www.rctech.net, have threads where people from the same region can talk about their hobby together.  This means most of the people posting on that particular forum are friends or acquaintances in real life.  “They pretty much just don’t want to make their friends mad at them when they complain,” says Miller “people think they can just hide behind their computer screen and never be found out”  (Miller, interview).  The truth is, when enough trouble is caused, moderators like Miller can track a user’s IP address and ban all accounts for the forum linked to that computer.  Although this is an extreme case of someone causing trouble, it shows vividly how much some people care about their virtual presence; enough that they are willing to lie about who they are so their reputation on a website isn’t tarnished.

A more contemporary example that puts a comical light on the problem of students becoming overzealous of their virtual presence can be seen on the television show South Park.  South Park takes peoples’ obsession with social networking websites such as Facebook to a whole new level.  In the episode “You Have 0 Friends” the kids on the show become completely consumed by Facebook, and begin to judge everyone’s popularity based on how many Facebook friends they have.  Eventually the episode transitions into the hyperbole of the main character, Stan Marsh, literally being sucked into Facebook and having to fight against his virtual presence in order to get his normal life back(citation).  The entire situation is a metaphor of Stan being far too concerned with his popularity on Facebook, and forgetting that his friends in real life are what really matter.  When Stan defeats his virtual-self and is returned from the depths of the internet to his room, South Park is essentially saying that everyone is always given the choice to participate in new networking trends such as Facebook.  This episode also highlights the importance of having real friends, and not just considering those friends as statistics that show others how popular everyone is.  Essentially: being famous is nice, but much less so if there is no one important in your life to share it with.

 

Rhetorical Analysis

The issue of proper compensation of collegiate athletes has become a very intriguing subject as of late due to many different reasons.  In the article “Should Student Athletes Get Paid?” Stephanie Sturgill and Dr. Steve Chen weigh the pros and cons of paying student athletes.  They base these claims on universities responsibilities to give all students the best possible education.  The article is essentially arguing that although a select few of these athletes do become highly paid professionals, people must not forget that a large majority of them never achieve this level of fame and financial surplus.  They bring up the point that many student athletes are just average college students looking for a way to pay for school.  Sturgill and Chen take a largely unbiased stance by suggesting several viable possibilities to resolve this controversy, however, they do still manage to get their opinion across that student athletes should not be paid for playing sports.

Although the controversy over student athletes being paid is a relatively new idea, the matter could become very controversial if it is left unaddressed.  This issue has become more pressing as more and more student athletes are found guilty of taking bribes from professional sports agencies while they are still in college.  The most recent example of this happening resulted in enormous penalties for both the athlete and the school when former USC running back Reggie Bush was found guilty of accepting bribes.  After a series of investigations and reviews by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Bush was forced to give back the prestigious Heisman Trophy he won while playing for USC and the school was banned from post-season play for two years.  “Should Student Athletes Get Paid” addresses a large number of possibilities to solve these controversies while firmly reminding the athletes and their parents that the point of any student going to college is to earn a degree.  The largest issue hindering everyone from coming to a unanimous decision is the fact that some athletes become paid professionals.  In general the 99% of athletes that end up graduating with a degree to earn a living in something other than sports get stereotyped into the category of wealthy professional athletes as well.  This causes a large misunderstanding in the general public, who assume any student that is gifted in sports should have no problem paying for school whatsoever.

The argument proposed by Sturgill and Chen is a somewhat logical one; that collegiate athletes should continue to follow the current NCAA ruling that “student-athletes shall be amatures” (Martin, 2002).  They suggest that the NCAA should continue current policies like the one in place to allow student athletes to hold on campus jobs that earn them up to $2000 per year to spend on academics.  They bring up the fact that “when monetary rewards are given, the athlete is then a professional,” to support their viewpoint (Sturgill, 2).  They also appear to use Logos in the argument that they think athletic scholarships and special treatment with regards to missing class are more than enough of an incentive to keep these students in line.  The article does come to one absolute conclusion; that in order to completely solve the problem of agents bribing students, each professional sport agency must get involved.  Without the help of these agencies making their own regulations, the agents that give out illegal bribes will never be punished, and thus never stop.  This coupled with the fact that athletes have yet to suffer from any punishment for accepting bribes until after they graduate leads students to act irrationally because they don’t feel threatened by any immediate punishment.  Essentially, the rules that pertain to students receiving illegal bribes must be made as public as possible.

The article also has some very effective Pathos when it brings up a survey done on a group of (non-athlete) college students on whether or not they would support the payment of the members of their school’s athletic teams.  The final results of the survey showed that a majority of those questioned “supported the idea of paid athletes,” showing that the athletic programs at colleges are a very important part of student life in college (Sturgill, 6).  The students interviewed even said they would be willing to pay higher tuition costs if the extra money went towards the athletes.  This willingness to help proves that athletic teams are a very important part of life for many college students today.

The article refrains from further use of Pathos to maintain a non-biased feeling, and even brings up the Logos of one of the opposing viewpoints.  They address the point of some sports fans who think college athletes should be justly compensated for all the revenue they obtain for their schools.  Another good point is brought up to support the stance that athletes should be paid when Sturgill and Chen mention the problem of point shaving due to illegal payments.  Although this problem is not yet rampant, it would be possible for someone to pay a student in an attempt to change the outcome of a game.  However, this issue seems to be very situational, and exact monetary amounts could change from person to person.  In short, paying athletes would not completely eliminate this problem.

Overall “Should Student Athletes Get Paid?” does a very good job suggesting all available solutions to the problems regarding student athlete’s financial status.   Despite voicing that it is their opinion that college athletes absolutely should not get paid, they discuss a plethora of other options available to their readers.  Maintaining this non-biased stance gives the authors increased credibility to go along with their backgrounds in athletics and the Doctorate in Sports Management held by Steve Chen.  The only thing this argument seems to be lacking is a plan of attack to actually make the proposed changes into an official NCAA rule.

 

Craft of Research p.15-25

These pages described how to have better “conversations” with your readers when writing a research paper.  Despite never really thinking of the relationship between a reader and writer in this way, it makes a lot of sense to me.  If you can give the reader even the slightest hint that they could have a very intelligent conversation with you in real life, they will be much more interested in what they are reading.  The various ways to present research that are outlined in the chapter were also very eye opening to me.  By simply choosing one of these styles you can be much more influential in presenting your research and connecting with readers.  To me, this was the most helpful section we have read in this class so far.

The Craft of Research ix-14, Everything is an argument Chapter 6

The first chapter of The Craft of Research seemed a little boring, and probably won’t have a ton of meaning to me until I begin doing research and have to read more of the book out of necessity.  The first few pages were spent explaining what is in this book, and how a researcher should go about using the book depending on their level of experience.  It explained what chapters were better to read if you were starting your first research project, and what ones to read if you are very experienced.  I think this book will become more of a resource the further into project 2 I get, and beyond.  Another thing that jumped out to me in the first chapter is how it explained to make every research project you do your own.  Connect it to your own interests and change the project based on what you like or enjoy.

As for chapter 6 in Everything’s an Argument, I enjoyed how it gave an example of pretty much every level of an academic argument.  I think that made it easier for me to realize that I am capable of writing a decent research paper, and improving upon it as I become a better writer.

Rhetorical Analysis Essay

In the article “The Abortion Debate No One Wants to Have,” Patricia E. Bauer discusses one of the lesser known issues associated with the abortion debate.  The issue Bauer brings up is the moral one on whether or not it is justifiable to have an abortion based on a child being diagnosed with a disability while still in the womb.  Bauer uses many different rhetorical styles in her analyzing of the argument, seemingly addressing each perspective on the issue.

The Ethos Bauer brings to the table can be noted immediately; when she states that her own daughter has Down syndrome.  This statement tells readers that without a doubt Bauer is against aborting disabled children because of the bond she surely has with her daughter.  She also noticeably takes a stance against aborting disabled children beyond the fact that her daughter is disabled by trying to make it seem like anyone who opposes her isn’t capable of reasoning to see her point of view.  She hints at this by discussing how she ‘loses’ no matter how she explains her decision to let her daughter come into this world with a disability to others; that they will say she is either ignorant, or a ‘right wing anti-abortionist.’  This would appear to be a strategy to make her sound more credible to readers by proving her opposition lacks any credibility in any arguments they make.

The Pathos in this article is directed at an audience who already shares the views of Bauer.  She uses a writing style that makes those who share her viewpoint gain confidence, and sort of demeans anyone who disagrees by calling them ignorant.  Bauer also seems to accidentally come across as a bit sympathetic in her writing by overusing herself and her daughter with Down syndrome as an example.  This may extract a lot of emotions from certain people, but much less so to people that can’t personally connect with Down syndrome.

Logos is one thing this article seems to lack, but upon further review of the subject matter, abortion is an issue that may not be very well suited to base one’s opinion on Logos.  The main issue Bauer could have found with using Logos to support her argument is that it conflicts with her own views.  The fact that in ancient Greek society, disabled children were abandoned to die may be a related fact, but it doesn’t really sway one’s opinion on the topic in today’s society.  Overall, this issue is very heavily an emotional one, and excessive amounts of facts and reasoning should not be taken into account when developing an opinion in such a matter.

Audience Analysis

The readings for this week about analyzing the prospective readers of whatever you may be writing was a little conflicting for me.  I understand where the documents are coming from, that if you know exactly who your audience is it is very profitable to write something that they specifically will enjoy reading.  The main problem I have with this strategy is that a lot of the things you might write as a professional (engineer or otherwise) could be compromised by doing this.  For example, if I write something specifically so my boss will enjoy reading it and promote me, I might not be getting across all the information that I should be.  In other words, I personally don’t want to worry about who my audience is more than what I’m writing about.  I want to get my information across as clearly as possible (persuasive essay or not) and to appeal to the largest amount of people possible.  I don’t think you can ever say exactly who your audience might be, and I’d rather appeal to a large amount of people that just really well to one specific group.

Chapter 5

This chapter being about Rhetorical Analysis (of an argument) made it one of the most thought provoking chapters thus far in my opinion.  It seems like the chapter has combined most of what the book has been about to this point quite well, showing how to analyze each part of an argument.  The most entertaining part of the chapter was definitely the analysis of the Victoria’s Secret ad featuring Bob Dylan, and how it seems the company just used Dylan in the ad because he is famous.  In my opinion this seemingly bad advertising should work extremely well in modern day America, because, quite frankly, people are stupid.  The increasing rate that people will just jump on a bandwagon based on what they see or hear in the media is astonishing, and being able to trick these people into buying your product seems like a worthy advertising strategy to me.