The Next Big Thing

There is a Samsung commercial with Seth Rogan and Paul Rudd. The commercial begins with the two of them sitting in a commercial, fighting over who is more equipped to be on a Samsung commercial, as the “Next Big Thing”. They then begin to make jokes at each other, putting each other down. Seth Rogan pulls out a phone, trying to prove to Paul Rudd that he is the “Next Big Thing”, but Paul also has one. The Samsung guy finally comes out and welcomes the two of them, and informs them that they are both the “Next Big Thing” and will work together. The commercial then shows the guys brainstorming on how the make a commercial that will be a really good one. While they are discussing ideas, Lebron James is brought in on a video chat on a tablet.

This commercial uses a lot of ethos in it. Samsung is using famous people like Seth Rogan, Paul Rudd, and Lebron James to get you to want to be a part of the “Next Big Thing”.  Because the commercial uses famous people, it makes you think that if these famous people use Samsung, then it must be a good product. Ethos is about establishing trust, and in American culture, we tend to trust famous people. Also the way the person who plays the Samsung company worker, is wearing a suit, which is also part of ethos.

The commercial also using the fallacy Mob Appeal, making you feel left out if you don’t have a Samsung phone. The commercial wants you to be a part of the “Next Big Thing”.

Another interesting thing to note about this commercial is Seth Rogan suggests that Samsung should put out on the internet that they need ideas, so that they wouldn’t have to think of ideas. This is the kind of thing I think that Postman is getting at. Postman is saying that entertainment is taking over our culture, and it’s interesting to note that even in commercials we are mocking this kind of behavior, and yet Postman is right about our culture’s lack of thinking ability.

Overall, I think that this commercial was effective, because of the famous people that were used in it. Using famous people definitely makes us at least a little bit more inclined to do what the commercial wants, and if not, we are more likely to remember the commercial, which is also want the writers and producers of it want too.