Cultural Rhetoric

When watching television, we have a tendency to skip over commercials because we are not interested in watching them. We just want the program to come back on, and with all the television channels now available, we can constantly flip through channels, avoiding as many commercials as possible. This creates a challenge for commercial creators. They now must create commercials that catch our eye and make us want to watch them. More and more, commercials are irrelevant to what product they are actually advertising. I came across a commercial that opened with lots of different animals. It begins showing an orangutan and a dog. It then switches to other animals like baby chicks and a cat, dogs and cats, an elephant and a sheep, a dog and a dolphin and even a dog with an elephant. My favorite is the deer being chased by a dog. The commercial ends with words across the screen saying, “Be together. Not the same.” I would have never guessed that this commercial was advertising for Android...

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 tha...

I was watching TV and I saw a Geico commercial, where a guy dressed in a suit, looking fancy asks, “Could switching to Geico really save you 15 % or more on car insurance? Is Ed ‘Too Tall’ Jones, too tall?” It then shows Ed Jones at the doctor’s office. The nurse was trying to measure him, but she could not, because when she tried to measure him, the stick did not extend any longer. The commercial ends with the normal, “Geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more.” I can see rhetoric in this commercial. The man in the beginning is dressed in a suit for a reason. A man looks must more trustworthy when wearing a suit and looks professional. This is part of “ethos”. This man is establishing trust between him and us, the viewers. He also makes a reference to Ed Jones. Ed Jones was a famous NFL football player, who played for fifteen years for the Dallas Cowboys and also attempted professional boxing. The man in the commercial is mentioning the famous football player...