Cultural Rhetoric

I saw a Shake Weight For Men commercial on YouTube. It started with a really muscular and well-shaped guy working out with Shake Weight and the narrator saying, “This is not a workout. This is a revolution.” The guy in the commercial kept working out and seemed satisfied with his intense exercise. The narrator emphasized the words “guaranteed,” “stronger” and “faster” and said that anyone who uses the product can build definition, size, and strength of all kinds of body muscles in six minutes. It showed some graphs and a doctor explaining it to prove that Shake Weight is a science fact, not a fiction, and then showed a couple of interviews with other muscular men who tried Shake Weight and were impressed by its effectiveness. It also compared Shake Weight with standard dumbbell and other company’s product to show how much more effective it is than other products. At the end, the narrator challenged the viewers by saying, “Think you can handle it? Then call now.” The advertisement u...

A few days ago, I saw Dove’s men’s shampoo commercial on Facebook. It started with an office worker walking through an office. He stopped in front of his fellow worker’s desk and called him. The fellow worker lifted his head, flipping his unrealistically gorgeous long hair with a sound effect. Seeing that, the man stood stiffened, staring at his coworker with confusion on his face. Then the hair started to fly around again. The man asked, “Did you do something on your hair? Because I see that women’s shampoo commercial effect.” The coworker remembered that he used a girl’s shampoo in the morning and rushed out the office to a store, fluttering his hair. He grabbed a Dove men’s shampoo and washed his hair with it. After that, he looked in the mirror confidently with a normal length man’s hair and breathed a sigh of relief. Then the commercial said, “Women’s shampoo isn’t made for you. Dove Men+Care is.” The advertisement was trying to make the viewers think that men should use men’...

I found rhetoric used in a Korean promotional video for UNICEF. It starts with sad music and shows pictures of poor children in Africa who are sitting on a dirty floor and studying in poor surroundings. After that, the most handsome and famous actor in Korea shows up. He is playing with skinny kids who look really starved and tired but are smiling at the camera. It also shows sick children lying in bed with hopeless faces. The Korean actor then strokes their cheeks and gives them a lot of hugs and medicine with a gentle smile. He narrates some touching words like, “The children I met still live in my heart. All children should be healthy and happy but there are so many children starving and suffering from diseases. They need your love. Their lives can change with your little help. Please give them hope.” The advertisement uses sound and photographs to appeal to the viewers’ emotions. Stirring music and pictures of poor, starving children make us feel pity for them and make us feel ...