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 this advertisement by Subway is persuasive and logical. Jared probably didn't lose the massive number of pounds from solely eating the food at Subway every day, but it is enough to convince me to choose to eat at Subway instead of a less healthy chain restaurant. I think this is a good incentive to dine at Subway, and if most of the audience feels the same way as I do, then Subway has a very good marketing technique to attract customers to their restaurant.
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 that
Excellent post. Great use of rhetorical analysis, good description and strong use of language
ReplyDeleteI think the greatest issue with this commercial is found in the fact that Jared probably attributes most of his success of losing weight to Subway's cuisine. If this ad were a bit more honest Jared would probably have to share some lifestyle changes he made along with switching his diet (for example, perhaps he exercised more?). Overall, I think this commercial is one that people could easily argue against, rather than fall into its marketing techniques.
ReplyDeleteI agree Mike, seeing a real life example of someone achieving something great can be really persuasive to other people.
ReplyDeleteThis ad is effective because they are saying you can lose weight and still have a good fulfilling meal.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very good post, it is crazy that we see this all the time and don't usually
ReplyDeleterecognize the way they are persuading us, and playing with our emotions to get of to buy things.