Use the Stella Artois beer commercial with Sarah Jessica Parker and Jeff Bridges.
For this assignment, you will be evaluating the rhetorical effectiveness of the ad you choose. While the ultimate purpose of an ad is to sell a product, I want you to think about how the ad is going about this goal. Are they trying to convince the audience that their product will make them successful, or prevent humiliation, or win them the esteem of peers or sexual partners? What are they trying to convince the audience of in order to sell the product, and how are they going about it?
Once you have selected your video, break it down in terms of content, intended audience, and rhetorical tactics. What claim does the advertisement make? Who are they trying to convince? How strong is their argument? Examine the ways the advertisement uses Logos, Ethos, and Pathos – Do they use strong reasons and provide adequate evidence? How do they try to establish their credibility (or undermine the credibility of a competitor)? How do they appeal to the emotions of the audience? What specific elements in the ad (wording, images, sounds) perform which rhetorical function, and how well do they do this?
To establish context for the analysis, provide a brief description of the ad, the context in which it originally aired, and the target audience. Is the ad aimed towards a certain demographic (age range, gender, political or social values, economic class, etc)? Your goal is not to explain whether or not you liked the ad, but rather to evaluate how likely it is to successfully appeal to the target audience and why. Because people are emotional creatures, a successful ad is not necessarily one full of meticulously cited data (though that may help) – remember to consider how images, sounds, and even tone of voice may impact the audience as well.
Remember – not only are you evaluating the effectiveness of the advertisement’s rhetoric, but you must also persuade your own audience that your analysis is trustworthy and sound. Remember to support your claims about the ad with evidence and specific examples!
