TOW #7: "Ramp Riot XV" (Visual)

            Ramp Riot is an annual robotics competition that our high school’s robotics team hosts. This year, I got my hands on a flyer for the event, and I was surprised to find persuasive strategies embedded in it as well. Through the use of large font and bold colors, the Ramp Riot flyer is able to show excitement and encourage families around the community to witness the event themselves.

            The flyers use of bold colors makes a statement to the viewer the moment that it is looked at. The ad’s title is colored in bright yellow, against a dark blue background. Additionally, the contrast of dark blue against the white secondary lettering shows the audience the information presented in an easy to read fashion. Thee bright colors allow the robotics team to show excitement in the event, since popping colors usually mean a fun-filled atmosphere. When viewing the flyer, community members get a sense of the fun and excitement at the event because of the bold colors. To add to that sense, the flyer includes full color, high resolution pictures of previous years Ramp Riot has been held. These pictures show smiles on attendees’ faces and even the Philly Phanatic getting involved. The pictures allow the audience to get an even better sense of the happenings at the event, and are therefore more inclined to go in order to witness it for themselves.

            In conjunction to the bold colors on the flyer, large fonts are also used in order to show excitement at the event. The title itself as presented in the largest font on the page, which shows the viewer exactly what is being advertised so that they can connect the event to its features. The features include music and robots, not to mention free admission. These topics are presented in the second largest font on the page, which brings attention to those happenings. Since music and free admission are persuasive for an audience to come to an event, the presentation of those topics large font allows the robotics team to show the excitement created at the event because of those topics. In that way, they are able to convince community members of the excitement at Ramp Riot and therefore encourage them to attend.

            The above strategies do seem to work, since Ramp Riot grows every year, raises over ten thousand dollars for the robotics team, and brings thirty six robotics teams from around the east coast to compete against each other. In addition to that, over twenty five hundred people from the local community attend each year. That goes to show just how convincing the flyers are and have been.