Find an approximately 30-second commercial for a product on YouTube. Analyze the spoken and unspoken rhetoric in the commercial by considering how the commercial appeals to logos, ethos, and pathos (see p. 108 of Join the Conversation). Your response should be a minimum of four sentences.
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Commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDf751c1yiA
The commercial I chose was a 30-second MasterCard commercial. The ad attempted to persuade viewers by using toddlers. The ad appealed to the customers through those who may have toddlers and children to convince them that expensive items don’t compare to valuable moments and inexpensive items (ethos). The toddler was used as an emotional appeal to those that have children and can relate to the often expensive cost of toys. By using the child as a connecting variable between the value of items and items that have no price tags and can bring joy. (Pathos) In addition, at the end of the commercial, it implied that although you don’t need to buy $350 toy, you can acquire things that you may need through the use of MasterCard. (Lagos) At the end of the ad, “There are some things money can’t buy, for everything else, there’s Mastercard” solidified the idea that Mastercard has got you covered for anything that requires a purchase. This persuades and encourages people to sign up and bank/ open credit with MasterCard because of a connecting familial factor.
Commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ffs4gSJjjV4
In this commercial, State Farm attempted to persuade people in need of insurance to apply for their company’s insurance. They do this by making a funny skit of a woman’s she shed being burned down and everyone is acting calm about it. They chose something absurd that needed insurance (she shed) to show their potential customers that State Farm will cover everything, regardless of what it is that happened. (pathos) This can appeal to many customers because they will be confident about their choices and will not have to worry about any strange damages. State Farm shows just how reliable they are from using this silly example. (ethos) Finally, State Farm ends the commercial with the phrase, “Home insurance trusted by more people than any other.” This phrase helps further enforce their reliability and can seal the deal with the potential customer. It gives evidence of their trustworthiness. (logos)
Commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLEyLGWvjII
The commercial I chose was an Audi car commercial. In this short 30 sec advertisement, Audi is trying to show off what their sport car is capable off. Audi is doing this with unspoken rhetoric, and throughout the commercial they show clips of the car drifting in the rain. The commercial appeals to logos because it is only showing what the car is capable of, and not showing anything that is too unrealistic. It appeals to pathos by trying to generate excitement from the audience. There is suspenseful music being played in the background and it is perfectly in sync with the fading transitions between each beautiful car shot. Every time the car fades out the music stops and then it continues back when the car comes back up. This creates a suspenseful and exciting feeling for the audience. For ethos, Audi appeals to it by purposely filming the commercial during rain. They know that when it rains it is harder to drift, so they filmed it when it rain to show that this car can easily handle it with no problem. Easily handling the rain means that this car has good traction. Audi is also a reputable car brand, so it gains credibility from there too.
Commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRREDL59u_o
The advertisement I came across while browsing on Youtube was a commercial from Liberty Mutual. In this advertisement, an actor tries to recite Liberty Mutual’s slogan however, he stutters or messes up the words which annoyed the director. This commercial appeals to the audience by delivering a humorous skit to the audience (ethos). In addition, the slogan “Liberty Mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need,” was constantly repeated throughout the advertisement in order to remind the audience how economical Liberty Mutual’s insurances are and worth spending your money on(logos). Finally, the advertisement was filmed with the Statue of Liberty in the background which I assume the company tries to portray how patriotic it is as an American insurance corporation, or appeal to New York City residents who are interested in purchasing car insurances.
humorous approach should be pathos (emotional appeals to the audience)
The commercial I found was a Hyundai commercial filmed about three years ago for the Super Bowl. In this ad, they used Kevin Hart as the father who let his daughter go on a date. Kevin gives the daughter’s date his car keys, but only to be able to track him down. The entire time all you see is Kevin Hart in the background scaring the daughter’s date around without her seeing, and he keeps getting more and more scared. For example, they’re in the Hyundai and they’re about to kiss but Kevin Hart pops out in a helicopter. In the end, the boy tells the girl he is taking her home since her dad is crazy and she’s mad because they’re home early and the dad is just like, “so how was your date?” This ad used ethos and pathos I believe. Ethos because they used Kevin Hart as credibility because he is famous and for being funny, which is when pathos comes in. They used pathos to make the commercial funny, which it was.
I posted on the wrong blog class sorry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHXL8A1dowo
I chose an Allstate commercial featuring their character Mayhem as a family’s cat; it features the need for insurance when a pet is liable to break something of value. Ethos is most prominent because the commercial mainly focuses on humor – Mayhem is shown plotting to destroy his owners ever since they brought him home. This attribute is also ethos as popular culture has deemed cats agents of destruction versus friendly dogs. Logos is applied through one of the commercial’s last lines, “And if you’ve got the wrong homeowner’s insurance, you could be coughing up the cash.” The prior scenes of property damage would need to be remedied at a high cost, a problem homeowners would want to avoid.
I watched a VRBO commercial, VRBO is a website to help you find vacation spots easily. They start by implying how easy it is to get distracted online and then later, they show a mother and son bonding, which demonstrates pathos. The employ ethos when they say how many destinations they search to find the right vacation spot for the user. They use logos when they first start the commercial by showing a man in the rain, wanting a beach vacation.
video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0brZ8Cinao
I chose a commercial for coca-cola. The initial scene starts by appealing to Pathos. The scene of all the people in the skate park with the coca-colas creates a sense of nostalgia and friendship, appealing to emotion. They then try to appeal to logos by stating all the ways that coca-cola helps people, like people who stay up late and early. I feel like the overall scope of the commercial was using ethos, to appeal to strong values of friendship. Coca-cola has been well known for a long time, and they establish their credibility and recognition by stating they have been around since the 1800s.
Commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7cIXzog8po
I chose a commercial for uber eats. The concept of the ad was to show a driver delivering food to referees. The scene begins with a bit of logos, from delivery guy stating that everyone needs to eat, even referees. They implied that even if you do not have time to go out and order, you can use uber eats to get food to you. Next, the commercial appealed to ethos. The camera showed all the security the delivery guy had to get through and the referees in their uniform in the locker room to make it seem more credible and realistic. Lastly, but probably their strongest, was their appeal to pathos. They made the skit funny by including the remark “This was actually the first decent call you’ve made all night” with a large pause for the joke to have full effect. This joke was effective because a good amount of sports fans often say that the referees are making bad calls. They closed it up by reinforcing the joke, by the driver saying “I was not kidding”.
Link to Red Bull Ad:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izbQZ0gvs-A
The advertisement that I chose for this assignment was from Red Bull. The ad utilized different means to appeal to the audience and to sell their products. The ad opened up with scenes across the world that were beautiful. This was a form of pathos, the scenes would appeal to the audience and retain their attention. It did not stop with just clips of scenery, it included those who participated in extreme sports. It went from people jumping off the edge of a cliff, to someone who was skiing, someone who jumps off a helicopter as well as those who were dirt biking. The ad then went on to feature sports stars, a strategic move, to gain credibility that their products are successful and helped people from all backgrounds. This was an example of ethos, a means to show the readers that they are the real deal. This will lead to people having the conception that they can become one of the greats. Red Bull tries to make a logical connection between consuming their product and going on to do extreme sports through their statement, “Red Bull Makes You Fly,”