END SEMESTER EXAM - 2021

CRITICAL THINKING IN POLITICS

Question 1

Ans: The question is about precise and imprecise/vague words and expressions in the given
context. The passage is about giving gardening tips and advices to gardeners. The language,
choice of words and way of giving the advice should be such that even a novice gardener
understands the instructions precisely and he/she doesn’t have to second guess even the slightest
bit of information provided in the passage. The aim is to have precise information without the
use of any vague text or phrase.

Precise basically means accurate or specific or exact to the necessary level of detail. To give
someone precise information means explain something to someone in such great detail that
he/she understands exactly what is being conveyed. Whereas vagueness is a situation which is
quite unclear in its meaning and has provided us with insufficient details.

Coming back to the passage we find that it has some precise words and phrases and some
phrases are a bit vague. We are generalizing the statements into precise and imprecise with
respect to first time or novice gardeners. Here, the aim of any expression should be to make them
understand the process.

The first word of the passage “feeding”, now this word has just one meaning with respect to
gardening and that is “fertilizing”. Therefore, with respect to the given context it is a precise
word. Next, we have the word “frequently”. This word can have multiple meaning. For some
people frequently can be every other day and for some it can be every two days or even it can be
twice every two days, etc. Therefore, this expression is vague. Instead of frequently, the passage
should state exactly how frequently. The phrase “no more than half” is itself clear and precise as
it states that the quantity can be slightly less than half but should not exceed half. Even though it
may seem vague but expression with respect to gardening and its usage in the sentence makes it
acceptable. “Label recommended amounts” is quite a precise term as it says to fertilize roses
with the exact amount that is labelled on the package.

The expressions “new year’s growth begins” and “each bloom period ends” seems to have a
broader scope and meaning and appears to be vague. It seems a little imprecise for novice
gardeners. But if we look from gardening perspective, having to know the exact timing for
fertilizing isn’t that necessary and even the novice gardeners can know when to fertilize even
without knowing the exact date or timing. Therefore, we can do away with this and the
expressions become acceptable. The word “similar” indicating plants is bit vague because the
understanding of similarity differs for different people. “Immediately after bloom”, this phrase
maybe easy to understand for some gardeners but not for novice gardeners as they might not
even know when the plants will bloom or how long will it take to bloom and therefore, we can
term it as a precise phrase. Lastly, the phrase “when the nights begin cooling off”, is a precise
phrase even though it seems vague the reasoning being the same as that for expressions “new
year’s growth begins” and “each bloom period ends” because again, the exact timings are not
necessary in gardening.

Question 2)

Ans: Advertisements are a strong and powerful way of communicating and informing the public
about a particular product. It is a very important tool which can help make the companies jump
heaps and bounds and make a strong brand image and reputation. Another thing which is
extremely important for a company is to have a brand tagline. The best campaigns focus on one
or a few words associated with the product and make it their tagline which helps them build a
greater market. Now these taglines have to be chosen very carefully and in a way that they give
positive connotations for their products.

Now a connotation merely refers to all the images—positive, negative, or neutral—that are
associated with any given denotation. The connotations of words include their emotional
meanings, which may be different for different individuals. Therefore, choosing the right
connotation becomes even more essential for companies.

(a) Ans: With respect to the above statements, we will analyze the ad campaigns of three
different companies and determine how they achieved success through the ads, focusing
especially on the words that were chosen to represent the product or service.

Kaiser Hospitals – “THRIVE”

Kaiser Hospitals is the largest nonprofit health plan in the United States, and is known for
its clinical services' tight integration. KP strongly organizes primary, secondary, and
hospital care; emphasizes prevention; and employs care pathways and electronic medical
records widely. As a result, it provides high-quality, cost-effective care to its 8.7 million
members and patients. The mission of Kaiser Hospitals is to promote the health of its
members and the communities they serve by providing high-quality, affordable health
care. Kaiser Hospitals has a long history as it was started in the year 1945 and today it
holds a high and reputable image all thanks to its excellent service and amazing Ad
campaign that specifically focuses of customer satisfaction and thrives to give individual
the best care possible. It has achieved A+ rating from Fitch’s Rating, Standard & Poor’s
Rating and even Insure.com gives the company an 83.64% customer satisfaction rating.
“Thrive,” Kaiser Permanente's ubiquitous tagline — one of the country's largest not-for-
profit health plans — has now become the ironic icon of a company that has lost its way.
Kaiser's business strategy changed over the last decade, and the bright skies that had
always seemed to linger over the corporation have darkened. But they instantly
rejuvenated their image and came back to light with its thriving performance.

Maytag- “DEPENDABLE”
Maytag has very long history and was started in 1893. The company saw may leaps and
bounds over the years but still its has stood firm amidst everything. The company made
the tagline “Dependable” and has build an image wherein people can easily depend on
them for all kinds of commercial appliances. A company which was just started as a
washing machine company now sells a variety of appliances and has a name throughout
the world. Maytag appliances have been linked with dependability and durability for
almost a century. Maytag's enduring legacy of quality manufacture and performance
continues to thrive thanks to Whirlpool Corporation's devotion. Many Maytag appliances,
like the Maytag Maxima front-load and Maytag Bravos top-load washers and dryers, are
built with commercial-grade components. With annual sales of roughly $18 billion in
2010, 71,000 workers, and 67 production and technological research sites throughout the
world, the Whirlpool Corporation is the world's top manufacturer and marketer of major
household appliances.

Avis Rental Car- “WE TRY HARDER”

Avis was looking for a fresh advertising campaign in 1962. The automobile rental
company has lagged behind the market leader, Hertz, since its start. As a result, the
advertising agency Doyle Dane Birnbach chose to use Avis’s second-place finish as a
clever approach to promote the company's customer service. The new tagline read,
 "When you're only No. 2, you try harder." The commercials for "We Try Harder" were an
instant hit. Avis went from losing $3.2 million to making $1.2 million in a year, marking
the company's first profit in over a decade. The market-share percentage disparity
between the two brands shrank from 61–29 to 49–36 between 1963 and 1966, as Hertz
ignored the Avis promotion. Avis could require a new ad campaign by 1968, according to
terrified Hertz officials, because it would no longer be No. 2.

(b) Ans: There will be a bunch of new marketing and advertising initiatives that come to
mind at the mere mention of the phrase, and we'll all have different opinions on which
projects deserve to be classified as "the best." Some of the top campaigns of all time are
decided by the brand's growth and social media success following the advertising
campaign. The most effective campaigns went global, allowing us to recall them even
years after they were launched. Brand association has the ability to influence and sell
products. A brand that captures your attention earns your loyalty. A brand that wins your
heart earns your loyalty. A brand that is connected with favorable attributes has a good
possibility of cornering the market and boosting product sales significantly. It's critical to
concentrate on the following to develop these qualities:
 Design of the visual
 Personification
 Language

A logo may be the brand feature that most people connect with a company. It could be a
celebrity for others. It's worth noting that a human brand relationship is far more fluid than a
logo. Sure, a logo may be updated or, through no fault of its own, come to represent
something new (like the peace sign or a thumbs-up). A celebrity or other human brand
association, on the other hand, is more likely to shift, for better or ill. Many people think of
Flo when they hear the name Progressive, Jan when they see the Toyota logo, and Jeff
Goldblum when they think about moving into a new apartment.

The most effective marketing initiatives employ a variety of sophisticated techniques, but
they are founded on thorough preparation and research. This crucial planning element will be
lacking from a less successful campaign. You may create a few ads, A/B test a landing page,
or send out the occasional email blast, but there is no concerted, coordinated effort and
 devoted plan in place. Marketing initiatives that are successful cannot be disconnected and
unplanned.

Question 3)

Ans: The movie Truman Show is a classic movie which may seem simple but has deeper
meaning of life. We can say that it was a very cleverly disguised tragedy. The Truman Show
(1998) is one of the most enigmatic films ever created. It covers a wide range of topics in just
103 minutes, including our relationship with television and media, how major corporations
manage and regulate our lives through representation, how we filter actual life through popular
storytelling narrative patterns, and much more. The Truman Show follows Truman Burbank as
he slowly realizes that his life is, and always has been, broadcast live around the world for the
amusement of the public. His hometown of Seahaven is a large set, and the people who live
there, including his wife and best friend, are all actors.

In the universe of The Truman Show, television is all-consuming, and social media does not
exist. This is due to the fact that the film was released 20 years ago, before Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, were invented. Previously, we would choose to publicize our life rather than deceive
others. Truman has been "catfished" by everyone in his life; individuals who portray fake
personalities have duped him into partnerships. Meryl Truman, Truman's wife, has done so in the
most traditional way possible. She didn't truly fall in love with Truman; she was only playing a
part, as evidenced by the fact that she crossed her fingers in their wedding photo, which Truman
observes humorously. She was doing it for the money, or anything else she could get out of
being on "The Truman Show."

The Truman Show is built on a longing for a version of comfort “An ideal life being reality at
least for person” that in the present day all of lack because of social media. Even though his life
was all good, he still longed for more whether from a girl he happened to glance at in school one
day or pining after a location that’s as far as he could reasonably get from his current position.
The pure unknown has an appeal in his clearly bored state best represented by the pitch-black
rectangle that later symbolizes just that, if we try to connect it with our life we can see that this is
what our society has become.