The advertisement I decided to use for this blog prompt is an old live action trailer for the videogame, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3. This advertisement approximately 9 years ago and featured famous celebrities at the time such as Sam Worthington, Jonah Hill and a small appearance from NBA all-star player Dwight Howard. The trailer essentially a giant blockbuster action film that fits into a 1 minute 30 second time frame and utilizes locations that are prominent within the game such as New York, Paris, Berlin, etc. which hooked viewers and ended with its famous tagline, “There’s a soldier in all of us.” All of this serves as an exaggerated portrayal of what it would be like to play the then brand new Call of Duty game. Based on my understanding from the article, I believe this advertisement appeals to the rhetoric of credibility and values. For the rhetorical appeal of value, or also known as pathos, by employing the talents of Worthington and Hill, they [the directors, producers, etc. of this commercial] are using them in order to attract both new and/or returning players of the franchise. Since they’re famous actors, the audience may have a connection to either one of them because they could’ve been in an audience member’s favorite movie. Besides that, the amount of action and explosions could also appeal to the audience’s love for big-time blockbuster action films or chaotic, adrenaline fueled video games. Moreover, the tagline that appears at the end of the commercial, “There’s a soldier in all of us,” directly communicates with the audience and gives them the notion that anybody could play this brand new installment of the Call of Duty franchise. 

I believe the appearance of Mr. Worthington and Mr. Hill could also be applied to the appeal of credibility as well. Since they are the main attraction of this advertisement, I would assume that any viewer would be more interested to see what they were advertising compared to some Joe Schmo that no one would recognize. They add just a little more OOMPH to this already over the top commercial. Just to emphasize this point, this trailer has 3.5 million views on YouTube and if we compare this to a similar Call of Duty trailer that aired a year earlier with smaller cameos from Kobe Bryant and Jimmy Kimmel, that only acquired approximately 1.5 million views.