Burke's Pentad Applied to Bush 2004 "Thinking Mom" Ad
This paper applies Kenneth Burke's Pentad — act, scene, agent, agency, and purpose — to the Bush 2004 presidential campaign advertisement known as "Thinking Mom." The ad features a woman driving who grows increasingly agitated as a radio announcer warns of John Kerry's alleged plans to raise taxes on gas, Social Security benefits, and middle-class parents. Through close analysis of how these pentadic elements coordinate and conflict, the paper reveals how the ad strategically avoids making any positive promises for Bush while relying on implied contrast to shape voter perception. The analysis concludes that the ad's rhetorical power lies in manipulating viewers to "fill in the blanks" — inferring that Bush would not raise taxes simply because Kerry is attacked for supposedly planning to do so.
- Description of the Ad: Scene-by-scene breakdown of the advertisement
- Applying Burke's Pentad: Mapping act, scene, agent, agency, purpose
- Coordination and Discord Among the Pentadic Elements: Tensions between agents, act, and setting
- Motivations Behind the Ad's Rhetoric: Targeting average Americans with anti-Kerry messaging
- The Strategy of Implied Contrast: Bush benefits without making explicit promises
- Conclusion: Ad's power rests on audience inference
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper grounds its rhetorical analysis in a clearly defined theoretical framework — Burke's Pentad — and systematically applies each element before drawing interpretive conclusions.
- The analysis moves beyond description to explain why the ad works rhetorically, particularly its use of implied contrast rather than explicit promises.
- The "read my lips" historical allusion demonstrates contextual political awareness, enriching the argument without overextending the paper's scope.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper exemplifies applied rhetorical criticism: it first identifies the pentadic components in neutral descriptive terms, then probes tensions among them (such as the discord between agent and scene), and finally synthesizes those tensions into a broader claim about political manipulation. This move from description to interpretation to evaluation is the hallmark of a well-structured rhetorical analysis.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a detailed description of the advertisement, ensuring the reader has a shared reference point. It then maps each element of Burke's Pentad onto the ad before moving to an analytical section that explores coordination and discord among pentadic elements. The final paragraphs extend the analysis to the ad's broader motivations and rhetorical strategy, culminating in the observation that the ad's persuasive force depends entirely on audience inference rather than explicit political commitment.
Description of the Ad
The ad opens with a close-up of a woman glancing at the clock on her car dashboard. It is 5:30 p.m. and she still has many errands to run. She turns her attention to the radio announcer's voice. He states that John Kerry and the liberals in Congress want to raise gas taxes to ten times their current level. A voice-over captures the woman's inner reaction: "10 times? Gas prices are high enough already." She looks visibly agitated. Simultaneously, the words "Raise gas taxes 10 times" appear in large green letters on screen.
The announcer then claims that Kerry wants to raise taxes on senior Social Security benefits — again, the words appear on screen in large green letters. Next, the announcer states that Kerry wants to raise taxes on middle-class parents eighteen times, adding the comment "No relief there for the married." The woman thinks aloud: "More taxes just because I'm married? What are they thinking?" A reference to "350 times" is then heard from the announcer, though it is not attributed to any specific policy. The ad closes with the standard disclaimer, "I am George W. Bush and I approve this message," preceded by a final reminder from the announcer that Kerry and the "liberal Democrats" mean higher taxes.
Applying Burke's Pentad
Kenneth Burke's Pentad is a framework for analyzing the motivations behind human action through five elements: act, scene, agent, agency, and purpose. Applied to this advertisement, each element can be identified as follows.
Act: Listening to "the news" on the radio while driving. This is an activity most Americans can relate to, as radio is a common source of daily news during commutes.
Scene: Inside a car. The setting directly reinforces the message about rising gas taxes — the viewer literally sees the woman sitting in a vehicle that consumes the very resource being taxed.
Agents: The woman driving and the radio announcer. The announcer, however, is effectively the mouthpiece for the Bush campaign; there is no way to determine whether he personally endorses what he is saying.
Agency: The woman grows increasingly agitated as she listens. The announcer's tone becomes progressively more disgusted with Kerry's alleged plans, underscored by editorializing phrases such as "no relief there."
Purpose: The woman's agitation signals her concern about higher taxes. The announcer's purpose is to convince listeners like her to vote for Bush rather than Kerry, framing Kerry as a threat to the financial well-being of ordinary Americans.
Coordination and Discord Among the Pentadic Elements
The act and the scene are coordinated in the sense that both agents are vocally present throughout the advertisement. However, only one agent — the woman — is physically visible. This creates a degree of discord between the agents and both the act and the setting. A further complication for Burke's framework is the announcer's role: he is a messenger rather than the originator of the sentiments. Bush himself is the true agent, because it is his campaign's message being delivered; he simply uses the announcer as a proxy rather than speaking the words directly. Coordination therefore exists between the nominal agent (the radio announcer) and the purpose — turning voters against John Kerry by reporting his alleged tax plans — but the real authorial agent remains largely invisible.
Motivations Behind the Ad's Rhetoric
The coordinated structure of the ad reveals that its creators want to reach the typical American parent and spouse — someone spending time and gas money running errands and caring for their family. The implicit argument is that such a person, despite their hard work and dedication, would be severely penalized through higher taxes if they voted for Kerry. At the most immediate level, the motivation is electoral victory. At a deeper level, the motivation is to discredit John Kerry and "the liberals" — a word spoken throughout the ad as though it were among the most reprehensible in the political lexicon — by suggesting they are working against the interests of ordinary Americans. The implication is clear: Kerry does not have the best interests of the public at heart.
Conclusion
This is a very manipulative way to influence the voting public, but it is certainly not an unusual tactic for political advertisements. The claims made against Kerry are exaggerated and stripped of context, yet they are left hanging without any corresponding promise from Bush to do better. The connection viewers draw between Bush and lower taxes, based solely on the attacks against Kerry, is a case of the audience filling in the blanks — much as voters filled in blanks left by other political promises throughout history. By avoiding any explicit "read my lips"-style commitment, Bush sidesteps the kind of campaign promise accountability that damaged his father's presidency. Ultimately, the rhetorical force of the "Thinking Mom" advertisement rests not on what is said, but on what the audience is quietly invited to assume.
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