What is rhetoric? Rhetoric can be defined as the art of effective and or persuasive writing. It's something that you see every single day, and something that you more than likely use every single day as well. Just this week I saw a Chevy ad that uses rhetoric, whether it seems like it or not. After first watching the ad I just sat there kind of stupefied, but I've remembered it all week and now after thinking about it with a rhetorical approach I better understand the ad and why it has stuck with me.
The ad begins with short clips of individual men walking into what appears to be a room made out of cement. You then see another man enter into what appears to be a control room and ask the men how they're doing, if they've ever been to a materials testing facility, etc. He then asks the men what their perception of steel is. It shows some of them answering with words like; "durable" and "powerful". He then asks what they're perception of aluminum is, one man says "the exact opposite (of steel) really", others say things like "light" and "easy to bend". The man in the control room then proceeds to tell these men that their are two cages in the room behind them. The one on their right is made out of high grade steel, and the one on the left is made out of aluminum. He tells them to go ahead and feel around the cages and to then return to the yellow square in the middle of the room where they'd been standing. Next, the man in the control room says that he is going to release a 700 pound grizzly bear into the room and that they had better hurry and pick a cage and get in it. Every single individual chooses the steel cage. At this point in time, I was utterly confused by this ad, but what happens next ties it all together. The individuals are asked how they fell about their choice of cages, and one man say's "He's glad he picked the steel cage", another man is asked why he choose the steel cage and his response is that "He figured it'd be harder for the bear to get in." The next man is asked if he'd rather be in the aluminum cage to which he simply replies, "No." Finally the men are asked if they'd like to see something else that is made of high strength steel and two giant doors behind them slide open to reveal a 2015 Chevy Silverado.
Without understanding rhetoric and ethos, this ad makes absolutely no sense. It's just some crazy people putting other people into rooms with grizzly bears. But when you think about it with a rhetorical approach, it makes a lot of sense. Chevy is using the credibility of steel to help make their brand and trucks seem better. To make them seem like they're as durable and strong as steel. They're using ethos, something that wouldn't be around with out rhetoric. Rhetoric plays a huge role in our lives as it can be seen in nearly everything. The things we say, read, hear, write and see can all contain rhetoric, whether it's right out in the open or if you have to read between the lines to see it. Because of the fact that it's almost always around you, it's important to understand rhetoric so that you can better understand the things that you experience every day. So that you can understand the actual message that someone or something is trying to convey, so that you don't just think that this new Chevy ad is just about crazy people putting other people in cages with grizzly bears in the same room.
No comments:
Post a Comment