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Buzzed


I was riding home in the car with my mom the other day when a commercial came on the radio. It was about two girls who had just left a club and were heading to a different club. It was clear from their voices that they had been drinking. All of a sudden there was a loud crash and the sounds of breaking glass and car alarms. They had gotten into an accident and the driver keeps apologizing saying, “I thought I was fine to drive: I was only buzzed.”

To this the passenger, who had broken her arm in the accident, responded saying, “Oh, you were only buzzed? Well that makes it all better.” And she snapped her arm back into place.

“Really?” the driver responded, “You’re really ok?”

“No that doesn’t fix anything!” she replied and cried out again as her arm snapped back.

 After which an announcer said, “Buzzed driving is drunk driving,” and the commercial ended.

This was trying to prevent people from getting buzzed and then driving. It used an appeal to fear to try to persuade the audience. Since the scenario could potentially happen, it makes the ad even scarier. The point behind it was good but it could be argued that they used the ad baculum (appeal to fear) fallacy and thus voids the argument. But for someone who doesn’t realize this potential fallacy it is most definitely persuasive. Fear can be used very effectively and I think that this commercial did a good job and using the fear to persuade people. The part where the passenger ‘unbreaks’ her arm is stretching it but the underlining point is still there and the message was very clear.

“Drinking and driving is dangerous, even if you are just buzzed.”

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Comments

  1. JeremiahJanuary 23, 2015 at 7:05 AM

    1st comment!! I think that although this commercial is outrageous, the possibility of the general situation happening is real enough to scare people. I know it definitely scared me

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownJanuary 23, 2015 at 7:51 AM

    I think it was smart to use fear in the commercial. But it was more scary that the passenger unbroke the arm... I won't drive while I'm drunk.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownJanuary 30, 2015 at 11:37 AM

    That's a really scary commercial. I will never drink and drive.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Abigail OverbeyFebruary 2, 2015 at 6:36 AM

    This commercial is pretty dumb (like a lot of commercials) but driving buzzed is never a good idea. Don’t drink and drive kids.

    David

    ReplyDelete

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