Bigger, Stronger, Faster

In the two posters on page 433, you see several burly men, whose faces aren't shown, that resemble famous pop culture icons such as Hulk Hogan and Sylvester Stallone as well as some "fit" women such as an Olympic athlete and a ballerina. The poster on the left is pretty bland and just gives you the name of the film ("Bigger, Stronger, Faster: The Side Effects of Being an American") and the tagline "Is it still cheating if everyone's doing it?" with the banner covering the faces of a San Francisco Giants baseball player, Hulk Hogan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Sylvester Stallone. It lets you understand the movie is dealing with steroid use because those 4 pop culture icons have all admitted to using steroids to improve their physique at some point in their careers. However, that is about all you get out of that poster. The one on the right is where a lot of the big symbols come in. Standing on top of a mountain of steroid pills and hypodermic needles stands Hulk Hogan in his signature pose. Surrounding him are Sylvester Stallone as "Rocky" with his arms raised, a female USA Olympic athlete, a San Francisco Giants baseball player holding an enormous American flag (to show that steroids are just a part of American society now) that encompasses a good portion of the poster a ballerina jumping through the air and Arnold Schwarzenegger standing at a podium. While no one's face is shown again, you can easily identify which pop culture icon it's referring to. You can also easily identify the purpose of the movie based on the fact that it's common knowledge that these celebrities have all used steroids at some point and they're standing on a giant mound of pills and needles. It shows the tagline again at the top "Is it still cheating if everyone's doing it?" and the title in large letters "Bigger Faster Stronger: The Side Effects of Being an American." It intrigues viewers and makes them wonder exactly what the movie is going to be talking about. Over the past few decades, athletes and celebrities that have used performance enhancing drugs have been punished and frowned upon for engaging in such activities, but the tagline makes a viewer curious as to whether or not they're going to condone the use of steroids due to it's popularity among athletes in American society. Overall they utilize the images very well and grab the attention of the viewer and make them wonder exactly what they movie is about due to the ambiguity of the poster and the great use of ethos, logos and rhetoric in general.