Draft 1
Every year, companies are competing against each other to get a spot and time to advertise their products for one of the biggest events in U.S, Super Bowl. For this year’s Super Bowl commercial, Budweiser has released two commercials: Puppy Love– a story about the friendship of a puppy and a horse- and “A Hero’s Welcome”- a story of Lieutenant Chuck Nadd, returning home from his duty. Instead of cheap laughs and jokes, Budweiser has won great amount of attention from the audience by presenting heartwarming stories of “#BestBuds” and “# Salute a Hero.”
To support its ethos, Budweiser, has featured the Clydesdales horses, the classic Budweiser commercial mascots. They have been proven to be one of the best Super Bowl commercial models since their first debut in 1986. In “Puppy Love” advertisement, Clydesdales is a crucial existent along with a golden retriever puppy dog. Though they have been used as derivatives, Clydesdales still have showed its dignity as mascots of Budweiser in “A Hero’s Welcome” commercial. The reputations for previous Budweiser advertisements have also encouraged people to pay attention to commercials for this particular brand.
Both of Budweiser’s Super Bowl commercials Puppy Love and “A Hero’s Welcome” have primarily aimed to arouse emotional resonance from its viewers – use of pathos. In “Puppy Love”, by displaying a puppy dog and a horse as main existents of the advertisement, it has successfully addressed the commonplaces that everybody adores a cute puppy and sympathizes with any kinds of love story. There are scenes of the puppy dog’s eager attempts to sneak out of its fence and commune with the Clydesdale horse, which gets hindered by both of their owners every time. Then the background music, “Let her go” sung by Passenger, plays at the right moment, denotes to the hopeless-yet still very adorable- state of the puppy and the Clydesdale, thus functioning to evoke a feeling of compassion from its audience.
The portrayal of movements and emotional states of both existents in the advertisement strengthens the commercial’s uses of rhetoric. Well-breed and trained actions of the horses and the puppy- mostly running and jumping- are sufficient to generate beautiful views to its viewers and communicate its story with them. “Desperate and longing” looks implicitly portrayed on both animals’ face eventually stimulate curiosities about the following scenes and sentiments from the audience; therefore preventing from losing their focus towards the advertisement.
In a continued analysis of Budweiser’s pathos, similar patterns of rhetoric have been used in “A Hero’s Welcome”; Lt. Nadd as “an object of adoration”, scenes of him with his girlfriend/wife and with his hometown residences at his welcoming party, and another background music that matches the situation- “Coming Home” by Skylar Grey. Only difference is that “A Hero’s Welcome” logically appeals to its viewers with phrases/narrations such as “Every soldier deserves a hero’s welcome” which resembles with people’s awareness and commonplace of honoring and showing respect towards the soldiers.
Finally, Budweiser has brilliantly connected the Social Networking Service (SNS) culture with the brand itself which abled them to entice larger age range of audience in a “modern” way. At the end of each commercial, it has inserted hashtag and the sub-title of each advertisement; for example, “# BestBuds” for Puppy Love and “# Salute a Hero” for A Hero’s Welcome– in fact, Budweiser has wittingly related itself to both “hashtags.” Ultimately, it seeks for younger generations-in this case, the twitter users- to make the commercial go viral among variety of people; hence publicize their product without spending another $4 million dollars for the spot and time.
Unlike other commercials, both Budweiser advertisements are marketing the brand “Budweiser” without explicitly highlighting the name itself. On the other hand, from the scenes and music to phrases and “hashtags”, all these aspects of the commercials moderately keep up and articulate tender mood throughout the advertisement; perhaps differentiate themselves from other humorous – not really – commercials and make them one of the most memorable and compelling Super Bowl commercials of the year.
I know it is poorly organized and written, but if there are anything that I have missed, please leave a comment!
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1. Identify the writer’s main claim about the rhetoric, ideology or and subtext of the piece.
I see where you are going with the paper, but be sure to include the thesis statement in the opening paragraph. I definitely notice the effort you are putting into the paper though! 🙂
2. Identify and comment on the writer’s introduction of a context (rhetorical situation) for this piece of rhetoric (think of the Starbucks and Cheetos paper) Name one thing that might be added, deleted, changed, or moved.
One thing that might be added is your thesis statement describing what rhetorical appeals or other techniques the commercials use for effectiveness.
3. Warning flags: check any of the following predominant themes this paper contains that might suggest a weak introduction or thesis:
No warning flags in the paper.
4. Find a strong analytical topic sentence and a weak one. Explain why you have identified them as such.
Strong: Finally, Budweiser has brilliantly connected the Social Networking Service (SNS) culture with the brand itself which abled them to entice larger age range of audience in a “modern” way.
Weak: To support its ethos, Budweiser, has featured the Clydesdales horses, the classic Budweiser commercial mascots.
The strong topic sentence clearly explains the method in which Budweiser attracts the audience. The weak topic sentence is not really saying anything more about what the impact the horses have on the commercial’s ethos.
5. Comment on the organization of the piece. What other possible arrangement strategies might make more of the material and develop arguments more fully?
Once you include a strong thesis in the opening paragraph, you will be able to revise the paper and include valid points that support your argument. The overall arrangement of the piece is well constructed.
6. You wanted to read more about….
The ways in which the commercials were effective.