Cultural Rhetoric

I saw this commercial for Brita water on YouTube and on T.V.  Stephen Curry, a professional basketball player that plays for the Golden State Warriors, endorses and promotes the product by saying "not all water is the same."  In this advertisement he makes Brita water seem better than the other leading brands of water by saying "You are what you drink."  He also says "some water can dribble, drain threes, or even drain a buzzer beater."  With these claims, he is implying that drinking the Brita water it could make you better at basketball and help you become better and as good as him. Brita uses a celebrity to sell it by implying that it could improve your basketball performance.  This advertisement is false because water is not going to change your skills and abilities.  It tries to persuade you to buy it because a professional basketball player drinks it.  I feel as though it may persuade some people to buy it because of Stephen Curry endorsing it....

I saw rhetoric being used in a Swiffer Sweeper commercial.This company uses multiple techniques to try and convince the viewers to buy their mops. The commercial used normal people that I had never seen before. They did not use celebrities which in a way made me think it was a more believable persuasion. Also the humor between the two old people made me laugh which made me feel better about the commercial too.The speaker wanted me to believe that this sweeper/mop was the best because it got “hard to reach places” that other mops couldn’t get. The commercial tried to persuade me to buy their mops by showing other people using them and being pleased with them. Their argument was logical and believable because it made valid points about the mop. It also backed up their argument when the commercial had a demonstration of them giving real people their products and showed them using the mops and being pleased with it. Their rhetoric technique was persuasive because it did make me believe tha...

I recently saw a Coca-Cola commercial advertising mini Coke cans. The commercial stars two superheroes: Ant-Man and the Hulk. Ant-Man goes into Bruce Banner’s lab and steals his last mini coke. Bruce gets extremely angry, turning into the Hulk and chasing after him. The Hulk finally corners Ant-Man and Ant-Man returns the coke to him, helping him open the can in which the Hulk drinks it with pleasure. This commercial greatly uses Pathos. Pathos is the appeal to emotion through feelings. This commercial uses Pathos through the appearance of well-known superheroes from popular movies. This causes the audience to want to buy the product because they see characters that they love which influence their feelings, making them excited to purchase the mini cokes. I think this is definitely persuasive. The commercial is very fresh, new, and well put together, making me enjoy how the commercial looks but also enjoy the product I am seeing being advertised. The commercial also appeals to emotio...

Today I watched a Wendy’s commercial called “Where’s the Beef?”. It was about a bunch of old ladies eating a burger from another restaurant. The burger looks pretty big, and the ladies make statement after statement about how big and fluffy the bun is. The lady in the middle then lifts the bun off the burger, and the lady to the right asks “Where’s the beef?” because the actual burger is tiny compared to the bun. The middle lady then leans in to take a closer look because the burger is so “tiny”.  The commercial was trying to persuade people to buy the Wendy’s burger instead of any other fast food burger. They used Logos by saying that the Wendy’s burger is larger than both the big mac and the whopper, but they use it in a manipulative way. The burger in the commercial that is supposed to be from another fast food restaurant isn’t actually a burger from one of those restaurants, they just want you to think that it is, and believe that the Wendy’s burger is actually the biggest. ...

I was thinking about which commercial I should do for the commercial blog post, and my brain enlightened about Samsung Note 7 which currently has a lot of issues all around the world. The commercial started out saying "We went on a mission to create not just a big phone, but a phone helps you do big things." Next, it described how it is curved both sides, and how that is effective when people hold the phone, it is comfortable and good looking on their hand. The announcer said that the phone has 5.7” dual curved screen, and various color. The announcer introduces ‘S pen’ that is more sensitive and useful. Therefore when you use it, it can translate in your language, it can crop parts of a video, and write a note on top of the screen. The phone is water resistant, also as S pen, too. Finally, the announcer emphasized security of the phone, it can lock and unlock your phone or secure folders with your eyes. The commercial advertised Samsung’s smart watch, wireless headphone, and...

While watching T.V., I was waiting for an advertisement that would strike my interest and inspire me to write.  After countless Arby’s and T-mobile commercials I saw one that instantly grabbed my attention. This commercial was an advertisement that was targeted against Donald Trump.  This political ad, was clearly supported by the Democratic party and Hillary Clinton herself, as the ad started out with Clinton saying she approved this message.  The emotion provoking commercial goes on to show young girls looking in mirrors and trying to perfect their image.  In the background you here Donald Trump saying remarks like “She’s a slob” and “She ate like a pig”.  His comments were demeaning to women, and he clearly was body shaming them. Towards the end of the commercial, it shows Trump being interviewed and he is asked, “Do you treat women with respect?” to which he replies, “I can’t say that”.  The ad then finishes by saying, “Is this the president we want f...

While I was watching TV, I watched a Coca-Cola commercial. I noticed that this commercial mainly used the appeal of pathos, which is the appeal to emotion, to persuade its viewers to buy a coke. This commercial tries to persuade people that they will be happy if they purchase a coke. In the commercial, two girls come into the store to buy more and more cokes to share with their friends for the summer. After they buy the cokes, the commercial shows clips of fun things they do together as they are drinking coke, such as spraying each other with hoses during a car wash, riding skateboards and bikes, and throwing a party. This appeals to the emotions happiness and envy. The commercial tries to convince its audience that through a coke, they can make new friends and have an amazing summer, which makes people feel happy. The commercial also appeals to the emotions pity and sympathy. The boy cashier who checks out the cokes for the two girls becomes more and more sad because he knows tha...

In this Heinz condiments commercial, aired during the Super Bowl this past year, a group of dachshunds are shown in hot dog costumes running towards humans in Heinz ketchup and mustard costumes who end up catching the dogs as they leap into the humans’ arms and lick their faces. This commercial is a specific appeal to pathos as the dogs are dressed up and are meant to be cute. The phrase at the end of the commercial is “it’s hard to resist great taste” and this is stated while the dogs are licking the humans implying that the dogs like Heinz and that humans should buy it as well because the cute dogs in costumes did.

An advertisement for Tide laundry pods played before a music video I was watching on YouTube. It was extremely interesting to watch because it almost seemed as if the company was not even interested in selling their product. The commercial began with a close up of a baby sitting on the floor playing with some toys. The narrator then asked if the watcher was able to list all the child hazards in the room in five seconds. One of these hazards was revealed to be the company’s own, Tide Pods in reach of the baby. The ad finished by reminding the watcher to keep laundry pods out of the reach of children. The short commercial was incredibly simple and as previously stated, did not build the product up much at all. In fact, the product was claimed a danger in some cases. However, Tide was aware that this ad would still have positive results even when it does not obviously tell the watcher to buy their product. The ad holds a strong appeal to the viewer’s emotions (pathos) by appearing to ha...

This blog post is about one of Android’s newest advertisements in means of advertising their newest operating system. The article of it can be found on techtimes.com or a direct link here . There is also a video in this article of the actual ad too. The video is simply a slideshow of short clips of animals’ interaction with each other. One thing that was interesting to me, was that there was really nothing to do with their operating system in the actual advertisement. I think that because of this, they only tried to make their video appealing to people and make them want to say “aww.” Along with the slideshow of animals, there was the soundtrack “Oo-de-lally” from the Disney movie, Robin Hood. This one-minute video, even though has nothing to do with their operating system, still gives that animal friendly fuzzy feeling that is appealing to consumers. At the end of the video, there is a message, that being the only text within the video, states; “be together, not the same.” I perso...

Subway uses rhetoric to draw customers to eat there with a spokesperson. His name is Jared, and he is well known for losing a substantial amount of weight by eating at Subway. Jared often brings with him a pair of pants he wore when he was obese to use as a visual aid for the audience he is presenting to. By doing this, he is implying that Subway can help you lose weight. This advertisement harnesses the tools of rhetoric to persuade the audience to choose the healthy chain restaurant. It specifically uses ethos, by establishing a credible source in Jared, and could also arguably include logos, appealing to reason with the possibility of losing weight. I am persuaded by this advertisement because I see someone transform their lifestyle by eating at Subway. It conveys the message that eating at Subway will improve your body and your way of life. The pair of pants that Jared shows from his unhealthy past make me want to avoid becoming that way, making Subway more appealing to me. I think...

Almost everyone has seen an ASPCA commercial at one time or another. While I was watching one of their famous heart wrenching commercials about animal cruelty I realized that there was rhetoric in every last bit of that commercial. The commercial begins with shots of dogs in cages or beaten. Then moves along telling you about the cruelty these animals have endured and how you can help give them hope of a good, safe future. They explain to you how you can help these animals have a better future away from these hardships. By going to their website you can donate and give these poor animals a better future with a better family. This organization is trying to persuade you to give to their cause by using Pathos. Ethos and logos are also used but not as predominately and pathos. By showing the viewer the pictures of these poor beaten animals and playing slow, depressing music along with it they are appealing to your compassion. They have good reason to take this road in their advertisin...

During 2016’s Super Bowl, a Hyundai commercial featuring Kevin Hart came on about a new feature on the Hyundai Genesis called Car Finder. The feature allows the owner of the car to receive information about the location of his car through his phone. In this commercial, an overprotective dad is shown to be able to track his daughter and her boyfriend while they are on their date using the feature. The dad is able to follow them around and make sure that they are not doing anything that he would not want them to. Only the daughter’s boyfriend notice’s the dad in the different locations and begins to become scared of him so much so that he immediately drives her back to her house to avoid seeing her father anymore. This commercial tries to use logos for its new Car Finder feature. The main function of this feature would be to help you to find your car when you’re in a crowded parking lot and do not remember where you parked. It could also be used to track your car if it has been stol...

With the upcoming Presidential election only a couple of weeks away, Youtube has been playing numerous politically driven ads. One that has been especially noticeable runs for thirty seconds about how Hillary Clinton has fought for children her entire career as a lawyer and politician. It goes through a series of video clips throughout her career that highlight an emphasis on children. The various clips range from when she was a young, promising lawyer to another of her Senate race in 2000. The advertisement uses ethos by building up the character of Clinton. It makes the viewer believe that Hillary is noble because she dedicated her life’s work to children. The ad also uses logos by giving a logical reason to vote for Hillary. If Hillary spent her entire career, which could have been extremely lucrative, on children then she must care more than just herself. It makes a distinction between normal politicians, that are viewed as self driven, and Hillary who the advertisement portray...

Joe Ciresi, who is running for the position of state representative here in Pennsylvania, has received some negative publicity as of late. His tax policies in particular are being targeted by the opposition, particularly in one mail advertisement. It begins immediately with the statement, “His record proves it: Joe Ciresi will cost us too much.” It goes on to elaborate on the policies and tax laws he has supported in the past. For example, he has both voted in favor of a law that would result in a 30% increase on property taxes, and even supported politicians who were proposing a one billion dollar tax increase. In addition, he is currently teaming with other politicians to raise taxes once more, but send the money to schools in Philadelphia and not our own. Now, this may just seem like a lot of political bashing, but throughout the ad, one can spot multiple citations directly to the Pottstown Mercury, Ciresi’s campaign page on Facebook, and other sources. This helps to establish a l...

The game known as World of Tanks is a World War II tank team based multiplayer game. The game recently has started accumulating various ads from all of its different versions that have a similar hype building formula. All of these ads for the most part provide no logical argument as to why the player should play World of Tanks over another tank game that focuses on WWII era tanks like War Thunder. Also since most of them have no real information or dialogue there is no way to establish ethos. In certain aspects the ads deceive you because in them you see tanks either taking twenty plus rounds which almost never happens in the game or they show a tank flying across the map destroying opponents with one shot left and right. So if anyone has ever played the game they know that the ads don’t tell the whole truth which as such diminishes their trust in the ads. So the only thing World of Tank ads do is build hype for the game. They are entirely built around pathos in that aspect. Most of th...

One day I was watching TV and a Covergirl commercial came on. I thought it would be a good commercial to use for this blog post because we see makeup commercials all of the time, and I think there is a lot of rhetoric in the commercial. The commercial is about Zendaya trying to promote a type of Covergirl mascara called Super Sizers Fibers mascara. Like a lot of Covergirl commercials, they use a celebrity, popstar Zendaya. The fact that she is a celebrity already makes the product appealing because she's popular, trustworthy, and looked up to so that would be a form of rhetoric. The first thing that she says is “Do you want to try something new?”, then she says the name of the mascara. By doing that she is using rhetoric to draw the viewer in and get them intrigued. Then she starts listing what benefits the mascara has or the features of it, which is “400% volume and so much length you won't believe your eyes.” Anyone who wants full, voluminous, long eyelashes are intereste...

This commercial uses rhetoric in a couple of ways but it uses one method more than anything. It appeals to the viewers emotions more then anything which is pathos. This commercial shows a girl crying in almost every scene, projecting her from being a kid to an adult becoming married. Her father was always there to wipe her tears and when she is married she is the one who ends up wiping his. It is pretty off topic, but using pathos grabs the audiences attention and the company is gaining viewers trust. They showed loyalty and I'm sure it means they have had the travelers insurance since she was born.

In Mr. Cline's class a few weeks ago. We took the day off in a way from our normal classes. Instead of continuing to read the books we were assigned and discussing them, he read us the sermon by C.S Lewis "The Weight of Glory." Its a long sermon, but one worth reading. It is about the confusion many people have on the topic of what we desire the most. He explains after much background information, that we all desire true happiness. And through that happiness, we long for heaven, our true home that we were designed for. He explains that glory is not what many people think of as being "famous" in heaven. But more that we are honored by our Lord and Father. For it to be like the scripture passage "Well done, good and faithful servant." C.S Lewis does a fantastic job at being persuasive here, and if read by the right person aloud, can have an excellent effect. He clears up lots of points that people bring up that are not true. Such as the point of glory...

I was watching a movie on TV, and I saw an infomercial for a garden hose. The hose was called the “Pocket Hose.” It would curl up when not in use to a very small and convenient size, but when you connect it to the water spout and turn on the water, it expands into a full size hose. It sounds good, but they began the commercial assuming that people can't perform basic tasks. It began by asking you if you were tired of your hose getting tangled up and unusable to the point of frustration with your current hose. It wanted me to feel like was also annoyed with my lame and boring garden hose that gets tangled easily. They also pointed out that anyone can use it. So this made me feel at first like it's a really sensible option since it's easy for even simple minded people. So in all, it tried to make me feel first angry and frustrated, then feel like there was an easy and obvious solution to my “problem.” It also made me feel like I was being jipped, and that I should get what...