I’ve always had a fascination with Applebee’s slogan: Eating Good in the Neighborhood. Partly because I’ve never considered Applebees a part of my neighborhood. I actually don’t consider anything outside of my housing complex a part of my neighborhood. Douglasville’s claim to fame is that it is the place where Atlanta keeps its charm. These slogans scribbled along the bottom of location maps in Arbor Place Mall, it had to be true. But I don’t feel hospitable to Douglasville. It is at once, a large and small town. Everyone knows one another, and if they don’t, they can be related to one another without crossing more than two people. We have all crossed paths at one point or another. But relativity aside, there is always the distance, the avoidance to talk to one another, to relate to one another. There was nothing about Applebees that said neighborhood to me.
But it was the place where things happened. It wasn’t very big, shoved somewhere between a Wendy’s and a Best Buy, it wasn’t hard to find but it wasn’t all that obvious either, until they changed the sign to include a bright red neon apple that catches the sun and reflects it in your eyes when you drive past. Every once in a while you’d read the sign and learn about upcoming trivia or poker nights, big prizes to be one, but for the most part it was just another restaurant for the family to go and eat for a relatively decent price, and quality that was significantly better than the Golden Corral just a few hundred yards away.
I think you should build upon this "topic" of lack of community utilizing the various slogans of the businesses in Douglasville. This would be an interesting toggling technique for such an essay, and you could even tie in history of Douglasville or companies or strip malls to help develop it. Personally, I would like to see a tie-in of the environment and how these “community” slogans contradict the goals of an environmentalist area. For example, Lowe’s is located in the same strip area as Applebee’s and their slogan is “Let’s build something together.” Do communities as large as Douglasville actually build things or do they destroy as they expand? Are they working more towards a “neighborhood” or merely “more saving, more doing” as Home Depot suggests? You could even play with idea of why Atlanta would want to keep its charm there?
ReplyDeleteAs far as reflection goes, remember to avoid the obvious. Yes, this essay could focus on the lack of community and how the slogans contradict the idea, and it could tie-in environmental issues and how the community takes advantage. But how does the message in your essay differ from others? How will you keep this from becoming propaganda for EPA? Most importantly, to me anyway, why is this so important to you? Convey it to your reading audience.