Outcome Reflection VI

In the context of the "Live for Now" ad, content development outcome helped me identify a critical failure in genre theory and contextual placement. By attempting to merge the Lifestyle Advertisement genre, typically focused on leisure and consumption, with the visual conventions of a Social Justice Protest, PepsiCo violated the social contract of both. I learned that in technical communication, genre dictates the rules of engagement; specialized information regarding systemic change requires a genre of advocacy or education, not commercialism. This relates to the concepts regarding how format influences writing strategies; just as a medical warning requires a serious tone, social justice movements demand gravity that a soda commercial cannot provide. I learned that misapplying genre conventions leads to rhetorical failure, as the audience views the mismatch as a lack of credibility. Ultimately, placing specialized cultural information into an inappropriate technical genre result in a genre violation that alienates the reader and trivializes the subject matter.