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You're Not You When You're Hungry


During a Super Bowl commercial in 2010, Snickers aired their commercial featuring Betty White, a 5-time Emmy nominee. She is portrayed as a football player playing with other middle aged grown men, but she is not herself. They are playing on a mud-covered field so they are all wet and dirty. They start playing and the ball is thrown to her, but she is tackled and thrown into a pile of mud. She gets up and walks back to the huddle all angry, covered in mud, and with a limp. One of the guys criticizes her for her poor performance and she chirps back with a sarcastic response. Then one of her friends brings over a snickers bar and says, “Eat a Snickers.” Immediately after this Betty White turns back into a middle aged man and is able to play football again. Snickers ends the commercial with, “You’re not you when you’re hungry.”

In my opinion this commercial uses Ethos. Betty White is a 5 time Emmy nominee and one of the all-time best female actresses. She is a lovable 95 year-old lady; who would not be persuaded by her acting in this commercial in particular? She is definitely a credible persuader in this commercial and will attract more buyers for this product. Although she is not a football player it is the acting skills that make it enjoyable.

This commercial also uses Pathos. The commercial tries to make us feel sorry for the old lady. She is being tackled around and thrown on the ground, but in reality she was the middle aged man playing like an old lady until he eats the Snickers bar. This commercial also tries to make us feel like every time we are hungry we are mediocre.

Lastly, this author uses Logos. This commercial tries to persuade us that if you do not eat Snickers you will play like an old lady, under perform, and have a bad attitude. It also tries to persuade us that you are not you when you are hungry; an understatement to what it really is. You may be a little grumpy, but it does not change who you are. This part of the commercial would be illogical.

Comments

  1. I liked the way you brought up the point at the end, ending your logos paragraph about how this commercial is not exactly logical. I also agree that the commercial used a great and persuasive speaker to show Ethos.

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  2. While you say that this commercial mainly uses ethos, I would have to disagree with that and say that it ties with pathos, as like you said, we are meant to feel bad for Betty White. However, we are also meant to find this funny and it is appealing to humor.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I was too plain, I beg your pardon, it was not easy to give an comment on your blog post that is worthy of your heeding, but what I want to say is: your paragraphs are clear in structure, and also your logic and ways of restating your advertisement are easy to understand. Good Job!

    ReplyDelete
  4. This post was very well done and I think summarized the main point of the commercial very well.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The topic was really interesting for me. The video clip was helpful and it was easy to understand the concept of the article. It was well organized by paragraph. I believe it was a well written article.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I am not a fan of these type of commercials, but I think the writer did a good job of convincing me of the persuasion behind these videos and that their just not a whole lot of nonsense.

    Bailey

    ReplyDelete
  7. I feel it's very easy for readers to read your blog because its structure is so clear! And at last, you also figure out a truth that a part of this ad isn't logical.

    ReplyDelete

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