Skip to main content

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.”

Labels:

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

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wiener Stampede

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.
4 comments
Read more

Weight of Glory

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...
9 comments
Read more

Marilyn Monroe's Shampoo

While browsing on Google I found an old advertisement.  The ad was for Lustre-Crème Shampoo. It featured Marilyn Monroe, known for her beauteous looks and her parts in different movies. One of her movies was Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Lustre-Crème was attempting to sell their shampoo through the use of fallacies. By saying that Marilyn Monroe that tells you nothing about the actual product: it simply attracts you to the pretty face in the picture. Using this as an argument of why someone should buy your product is quite illogical. Just because Marilyn Monroe uses it doesn’t provide assurance of its abilities. They attempt using snob appeal by trying to make the audience believe that they could be like Marilyn Monroe if they use the same product as her. They use appeal to illegitimate authority by using Marilyn Monroe to promote their product. Although she herself is a customer, this is still rather irrelevant. She herself has no type of expertise in hair products and knows nothing t...
3 comments
Read more