Skip to main content

The Phelps' Training Secret

Several years ago, I remember watching several commercials in which Subway would use top sports players in their commercials in order to promote their product. One in particular that I remember is the commercial with Michael Phelps. In the commercial, it shows Michael swimming and training for the Olympics. In the middle of his training, the announcer is saying how training is a lifelong passion, and then his mother comes in with a Subway footlong sandwich, and then the announcer states that that passion is fueled by a passion for footlongs. This is an example of a false cause fallacy because it is saying that Michael became a famous and successful swimmer because of his passion for footlong subs.

The next line is a sneaky one that many don’t catch, but the announcer then says, “That’s why Debbie Phelps is always there for her son Michael.” Seems harmless enough but it is really an appeal to emotion. It is saying that in order to be a good mother, you need to buy Subway for your kid. This is of course not true but it seems like it could make sense which is why it is so useful. That is not the end of it though, at the end of the commercial Michael and his mom say, “Subway the official training restaurant of the Phelps family and athletes everywhere.” By saying ‘and athletes everywhere’ it is using a version of Mob Appeal and an Appeal to Authority to make Subway seem popular in sports and hints that if you are an athlete you should eat Subway. I’m not saying that Subway is bad or that athletes shouldn’t eat there, but I do think that they are taking more credit than is actually due to them. I’ve eaten at Subway, and it unfortunately hasn’t made me that much of a better athlete.

Labels:

Comments

  1. Kate weberMarch 22, 2015 at 3:38 PM

    Wow, I didn't realize how many fallacies were in one subway commercial. Thanks for pointing that out. isn't it interesting how people try to get us to want or like their products?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Clay BuxtonMarch 27, 2015 at 6:05 AM

    Alot of people go to subway anyway, but having a celebrity say that they love subway and that they get big and strong and they became as skilled as they are now, because they ate subway is definitely a fallacy.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownMarch 27, 2015 at 7:35 PM

    This could also be an appeal to illegitimate authority if they consider Michael Phelps an authority on the food at Subway.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Abigail OverbeyMay 4, 2015 at 6:46 AM

    Maybe his passion for footlongs is fueled by his passion for the munchies. Also, I didn't know that Subway is the 'official training restaurant of athletes everywhere". I should start going there...

    Liz

    ReplyDelete
  5. Abigail OverbeyMay 4, 2015 at 6:51 AM

    I think this commercial makes children want to eat subway only because Michael Phelps is eating it. Kids look up to Olympic Athletes, and if Michael Phelps is eating subway, then they too will want to eat it.

    Kaitlyn

    ReplyDelete
  6. Abigail OverbeyMay 4, 2015 at 6:53 AM

    What most people don't understand is that those athletes train their whole life to be built that way. Most people just expect to eat subway and become muscular.

    Cory

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Open Happiness

While at the movie theaters to see The Maze Runner , I saw a commercial that featured rhetoric. The commercial begins with a young woman named Jess purchasing two Coca Cola drinks in a convenience store. One has her own name on it, and one has the name of her friend Alisha on it. The cashier watches her forlornly as she leaves, hinting that he has a crush on his customer. Jess gives the Coke with Alisha’s name on it to her friend, and together the two friends drink them. Later, Jess, Alisha and two other friends come back into the store to buy more Coke, then leave and have a good time together. Jess keeps coming back to the store with more and more friends, each time purchasing Coca Cola with their names printed on the labels. The cashier smiles and watches, but it is clear that he wishes he was with Jess.  Finally, as the cashier is closing the store for the night, Jess shows up at the door with a Coke that has the name Chris on it. She smiles and hands the drink to the ...
4 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

Is Hip Hop a Cancer or a Cure?

The speech I watched was a Ted Talk presented by one of my favorite music artists, who just so happens to be a Christian rapper.  This rapper’s name is Lecrae Moore, but he just goes by Lecrae.  Over the past five years or so, Lecrae has been able to break out of the small box that Christian music and Christian rap have been put in, and he has been able to get his music out to all types of crowds.  So I was actually pretty excited when I saw that he had spoken at a Ted Talk in Nashville.  The speech he delivered was titled, “Heroes and Villains: Is Hip-Hop a Cancer or a Cure?”  In this speech Lecrae talked about how it is easy to look at certain people in history and label them as heroes or villains, but he talks about how not everyone views historical figures the same.  Lecrae started off by defining where we get the words, “Hero” and “Villain”.  Knowing the origin of these words really gave good context for what came to follow.  He then went o...
5 comments
Read more