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
Source ad: Bush 2004, "Thinking Mom." Retrieved from the Political Communication Lab archive at Stanford University (http://pcl.stanford.edu/campaigns/2004/archive.html).
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.
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