ABSTRACT
In the last of these ads, something has gone awry. Or perhaps something has gone wry. The first four ads, drawn from the Homes sections of various Texas newspapers, represent their genre nicely. Filled with overly rich images, these ads turn brick-and-wallboard boxes into much grander places by focusing on what their products symbolize rather than what they are. The last ad, however, misses the game plan entirely. Its depressing frankness fails to do an essential job of rhetoric: blending an audience’s lived life with its psychic life.
