Rhetorical Analysis 1 - Advertisement

OK, so now the blog has become a dual-purposed machine because I actually have to use it to do homework for my persuasive writing class. Luckily, it's actually the LAST English course of my life. No offense to the Language Arts-gifted out there, but it's just not my thing. I'd prefer calculating the alpha emission of a decaying nuclear substance or dissecting a human cadaver than writing another drawn-out English paper. No offense Professor Esplin, that's just what I'd prefer to do - to each his own, right? By the way Prof. Esplin, this little intro isn't a part of the word count for the rhetorical analysis.

Rhetorical Analysis 1 - Advertisement: Word Count 393 words

Lately, there has been a craze about the Old Spice Body Wash commercials, unparalleled by any other commercial fad out there. Really, I can’t remember anything quite like it, ever. However, this little frenzy begs for the answers from a couple of questions; why are these commercials so memorable and are these commercials truly effective?

The Old Spice Company has a creative claim and reasoning behind its commercials. Mostly, I’d like to focus on the initial commercial to make the big splash, the one that ends with the phrase, “I’m the man that your man could smell like.” Obviously it has the claim that by using Old Spice Body Wash a man could be more appealing by smelling like the man shown in the commercials. The audience is to be in part men and women. Men are influenced by the thought that they could be that much more attractive and could live the lifestyle as the man depicted on the boat and riding the horse and women are affected by the simple phrase that their men could smell better. Of course, this is all with the purpose of selling more body wash.

The preceding paragraph unfortunately could not answer either of the questions earlier proposed, but it sets the stage for the desired responses. The principles of Rhetoric, firstly ethos and logos (respectively being the appeal to authority and logic) are of little application in these ads as the main player of interest is pathos – the appeal to emotion. In this case, Old Spice plays on emotions for the simple motivation of trying to leave a lasting imprint on the mind of the viewer. Thus, it utilizes word-of-mouth advertising because everyone enjoys sharing a good laugh with their friends and the hilarity of this commercial is ideal for that purpose of sharing. Likely, the biggest reason for its success would be how atypically it is setup. It gives a sufficient amount of information on the product, but in all reality, it does its selling by playing on everyone’s “funny-bone” and just plain entertaining its audience.

All-in-all, I think it can be concluded that the commercials are memorable because they make the audience laugh and give them a good time that can be shared with friends. Furthermore, it is effective because it leaves that lasting impression that sticks in the mind of the viewers.