Television advertisements have been a part of pop culture for years, these quick minute long clips gain the popularity of its viewers through humor, shock, or simply good salesmanship. The ShamWow infomercial has become one the most well known television ads in America. Its popularity came from its snappy dialogue, believable offer, and enthusiastic spokesman. But what made this infomercial so successful? Today I will be analyzing how the ineffective use of the appeals of ethos and kairos, and the highly effective appeal of logos and pathos effect the audience in the ShamWow commercial.
The ethos appeal is first appeal in the ShamWow commercial that is used ineffectively. Ethos is the appeal to credibility, an example of this would be having
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In the Shamwow commercial, a tan, skinny, salesman in a blue polo stitched with the products title, introduces himself as Vince Offers of Shamwow. Offers’ own association with the company, along with the label of on his shirt, is there to convince the audience, that because he belongs with the company, he knows the product he is selling well and thus, he can be a trustworthy source of information regarding the product. Initially this seems to be a very legitimate appeal, however it should be considered that because he works for ShamWow, he could give a biased sales pitch on the product and make it sound better than it is, making him an untrustworthy source. Another ethos appeal in the advertisement occurs when the Vince wipes his wet arm with the ShamWow towel and says “Olympic divers - they use this towel” the lack of proof or source makes this statement ineffective, just like other appeals in this commercial. During the last few minutes of the commercial, the footage cuts to real life recordings of people giving feedback about the ShamWow. A few of these comments were “I …show more content…
Kairos is basically making the most of the current moment. Like most commercials the last thirty seconds of the ShamWow commercial contain the appeal to kairos. In the commercial the salesman says “But if you call now — within the next twenty minutes, because we can’t do this all day — we’ll give you a second set [of ShamWows] absolutely free.” A statement like this is completely misleading, considering that commercials like these are randomly played by different television programs at completely different times, it is very doubtful that the ShamWow company could track who calls within the set time of twenty minutes after the commercial aired. That being said this is essentially a fake appeal of kairos. While it may still persuade a few people, those who consider the circumstances will see its
First, the subject of the commercial deduced after watching it is one, which cannot be ignored. Almost everyone was affected by the September 11 attack and paid attention to any opportunity that shows respect for the victims. Secondly, the audience only realized that it was an advertisement at the end of the commercial when the company logo is shown. But more influential is the use of rhetorical appeals.
The first second of the ad immediately gets your attention. The reason is simple: the man speaking isn’t speaking, he’s screaming. Mr. Mays screams and shouts for the first one and a half minutes of his two minute commercial. It’s all part of his character, the pitch-perfect pitchman persona he takes on in all of these commercials. Every commercial is the same: he has a beard, shouts a lot, and wears a blue shirt with khaki pants. The man is energetic, even spastic, but he is consistent. That consistency lends his product legitimacy. This man, Mr. Mays, is no unprofessional street vendor. If the salesman is reliably excellent, then his wares must be just as excellent. His actions speak even louder than his booming words. Watching his body language reveals several key gestures. The one he repeats over and over resembles a hug. He reaches out with one or both hands, palms open, and then in one smooth motion pulls his hands back and closes his hands into fists (with a bright smile). In fact, it doesn’t just resemble a hug, it is as close as one gets to hugging through a television screen. As silly as it sounds, standing in front of a camera pretending to hug empty space makes Mays seem much friendlier, and people listen to friends. It is just another way for Mays to make himself seem like one of his audience, or said another way it gets his audience to identify with him. Even his shouting
Have you ever wondered how advertisers come up with trailers or commercials? Or if there is a formula or specific ingredients for which advertisers make their advertisements? I am here to tell you that there is a formula and there are key ingredients to make an effective trailer or commercial. In the world of commerce professional advertisers use rhetorical devices as their ingredients to cook the best trailer that will attract customers to buy many things. The most common forms of rhetorical devices are pathos, ethos, and logos, these devices make a statement more persuasive but what separates a good advertiser from a great one is the way that they use these devices. Advertisers are experts in using these devices in combination; and the only way to know how to combine them is by studying your audience. Video game advertisers have specific ways to persuade their audience to buy a game. Today I will be studying this pattern in a video game trailer of “The Last of us” by Hydrawlik. I will analyze the combination of rhetorical devices that are used in the trailer and evaluate their effectiveness. This video game trailer uses these rhetorical devices effectively to attract the audience’s attention in order to lure customers to buy the product. Rhetorical devices are used for specific reasons for example Pathos is used to incite emotional responses, logos to prove that the game has exactly what the audience wants, ethos to develop a sense of credibility in the advertiser
Another form of persuasion commercials use is ethos, which appeals to one’s ethics. In the
When using the ethos appeal, it’s about making a point based on credibility (Colorado State University – Global Campus, 2017). Fred played an important part when using credibility by using personal experience to persuade to purchase the Apple TV. It was advised to purchase the Apple TV considering the fact being a consistent Apple user with owning an iPhone and MacBook. This gives users the opportunity to connect all three using each from the computer, phone or TV.
“This kind of marketing is misleading and insults the intelligence of the audience” (Sue Jozui). The author describes how celebrities make people want to buy a product just because the celebrity is in the commercial advertising it, instead of buying it for the quality of the product. This is fallacy, as it is the consumer’s responsibility to research a product before buying it. Reviews of a product are a great example, as it is a good way to see how good a product is. They show other people’s personal experiences with the product, and you can make a good judgement about it, out of their reaction to it.
There are a variety of types of fallacies that can be found in an advertisement, three of which are the appeal to authority, appeal to ignorance, and false dilemma. The appeal to authority is when a company, or anyone trying to advertise or make an argument about something, uses a famous person to persuade the listener about a product that the celebrity knows nothing about. An example of this fallacy type is the 1991 super bowl commercial that used Cindy Crawford to endorse Pepsi. The target audience for this advertisement were grown men, specifically
After viewing several commercials, and analyzing the use of various advertising techniques, the Gillette - Fusion Power Phenom commercial seemed to be the best at influencing its target audience. One reason that the Gillette - Fusion Power Phenom commercial was so effective was because they used a testimonial technique. By using celebrities like Roger Federer, Tiger Woods, and Thierry Henry, they tried to influence buyers by showing that even celebrities used this product. In addition, the advertisers also used the bandwagon technique. For example, the advertisement says to “try the world’s most comfortable shave”, suggesting that the entire world uses the product, and you should as well. In addition,
State the ad’s product.- The advertisement is meant to warn people to focus more while driving on school holidays because there are more children out meaning an increased chance of an accident.
Ethos is an appeal to convince the audience whose believe on the particular subject that he or she is qualified to present.
Nike is a juggernaut when it comes to commercials and endorsements, and for the amount of money they spend on advertisements, they should be. According to their own Fiscal Reports, they spent over 3 billion dollars on any form of promotion in 2014, which includes advertisements and endorsements. In the Nike ad “Winner Stays On”, they don’t fall short of their production budget with the use of an abundance of big name athletes such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Kobe Bryant. Ethos plays a huge role throughout the entirety of the commercial due to the large amount of athletes being featured, although other devices are also used such as pathos, humor, exaggeration, bandwagon, and anticlimax. These devices are used in order to reach their intended audience of teenagers and young adult athletes.
Ethos is the strongest and most effective method of persuasion that establishes likability and credibility which creates a trustworthy bond and hooks the crowd into listening. It is used constantly in advertisement and everyday life, so much so that people don’t notice it. For example, in an EAS magazine ad for nutrition protein powder, a picture of Ramsey Bergeron, a famous triathlete and personal trainer, is used to persuade viewers to buy the product because a he uses it and he is a great athlete. Ramsey Bergeron Protein Powder. This athlete is famous for being incredibly athletic convincing viewers that he would know about sports nutrition. So this ad uses ethos to show credibility. Ethos is also effectively used in plays. In the play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar Brutus shows this
The Nitty Gritty Band (NGB), at the request of Mr Vince Offer, contracted a study on its selling strategy and faults. The NGB strived to answer the question: "Does my commercial SELL?" The committee made to look at the commercial for"Shamwow" in consideration of visual and audible selling cues or doubts about the branded cleaning product.
Wherever one looks barraged by an advertisement or marketing ads. Whether you are appreciating a day of shopping or heading to work, promotions encompass you. It appears we never get a break from this production. In addition, we see them so much we have developed resistance to their nearness. There are numerous approaches to publicize an item, and ordinarily the similarities are self-evident. Analyzing commercials intently uncovers that paying little respect to the likenesses and contrasts in notices, the primary motivation behind a promotion is to engage a specific group of onlookers.
We tend to run away from responsibilities, problems, and generally anything that we are trying to avoid. Advertisements, on the other hand, are something even the best marathoner cannot run away from. The Balega sock ad that was featured in the September 2016 issue of Runner’s World Magazine goes beyond selling seams for the soles of our feet. This ad features a blown up picture of the sock with a contrasting black background to the purple, blue, and white colors of the cloth. The intricacy of each thread is also edited in a way that catches your eye, and creates the illusion that this sock is top-of-the-line quality. The ad strategically has highly contrasting colors to grab the viewers attention, and short, simple text so that the ad does not lose the viewer’s interest in reading about what these socks have to offer. Not only does the text state the quality material of the sock that reaps new personal records, but it also states that each purchase supports local and national African causes. This emotional appeal does not only implicitly sell the idea that you are a person of morals for contributing to a cause, it also sells the idea that you will be able to achieve your goals of becoming a better runner by purchasing their socks. Something as innocent as socks sell deeper meanings beneath their threads.