Analysis of Commercial
Rhetoric: This commercial relies heavily on pathos and ethos. Pathos is an emotional appeal, and ethos is an ethical appeal, such as establishing credibility. The commercial invokes pathos by using military families, particularly a mother with deployed children, and a husband with a deployed wife, and using home photographs. The ethos appeal is that the people speaking are “real people” who are Verizon customers.
Overall Message: The goal of this commercial is to gain Verizon customers. Verizon is running a deal where military families can get discounted lines and a free one year subscription to Amazon prime. The commercial opens with a friendly-looking middle aged woman wearing an “army green” coat standing against a white, blank background. As she talks, the commercial cuts to a picture of pure Americana – large family in front of a red barn with blue skies and green grass – and then cuts back to the mom, who is holding her phone to emphasize her ability to keep track of all of her children by using her phone. Next are shots of a young man wearing a blue shirt and khaki pants talking about his wife. The blue of his shirt matches the blue of the uniforms he and his wife both wear when a picture is shown of the both of them. There is a voice over and simplistic text about why military families choose Verizon. The camera cuts out enough to show that the man appears to be standing on a blank set with lighting rigs at the top. There is a voice over and simplistic text about the special rate military families can receive. The mom is shown again, and then the voice over discusses the Amazon prime promotion with an image of a tv show on a phone, and the tv show looks military-ish. There is the tag line of America’s most reliable network, and then the Verizon logo. During the whole commercial a snappy music track plays and then ends with a flourish.
Production: This commercial is all about using the military family appeal. In America, the military family holds almost mythic appeal, and nothing is more pure and patriotic and touching than a military family. Even though the people talking are not in uniform, their clothing mimics military uniform. The two photos shown are not shown full screen – they look like regular snapshots that regular people took. With the blank white background and sound stage backdrop, the total focus is on these two family members talking about how important it is for them to be able to keep in contact with their military loved ones. A mother with sons. A father missing his wife on the other side of the world. The message is that Verizon is patriotic and cares about military families keeping in touch.
Distribution: I don’t have or watch cable television, so my exposure to ads is limited. This Verizon spot played several times when I was watching The Good Place using my iPad Hulu app. By looking at an analytics site, the ad seems to be playing on a variety of channels. It played during a movie on MTV2 and was played during a movie on Comedy Central, and those have been updated as of today, November 3rd, 2019, prior to 12:00pm. This commercial is obviously aimed at the military and their family members, but is also trying to appeal and seem like “a good company” to anyone in the mid-20’s and up demographic who tend to switch phone carriers. What I did find very interesting was that this commercial featured Amazon Prime, and it played on Hulu.
Persuasive techniques:
Visual
Focal Points – Only one person is on screen at a time, and the focus is on them because the background is basically blank. When the family photos are shown, they are the sole focus. There is only one time when a person shares the screen with some large text, so mostly every single shot has a very clear, very minimal focus.
Color – The color detail is very simplistic and subtle, but incredibly interesting. The background and text are all black and white, so all focus is on the people. The first woman who speaks, the mother, wears a coat in a color that is literally called “army green” and she carries a bright red phone. The color of the phone drawls the eye to the phone (it hangs in her hand and isn’t used) and also matches the red of the farmhouse in the picture of her large family. The young man wears a blue collared shirt and khaki pants, and later on we see a picture of him in uniform, and the blues match and the khaki matches his belt.
Aural
Diegetic vs Non-diegetic – All of the informal talking by the family members is diegetic, which seems more relatable, while the technical, sales information is non-diegetic so nothing distracts from the focus on the family members.
Register – The family members talking is very informal, even somewhat halting, to make them seem like they really are just every-day people, no different from anyone else, speaking their true thoughts off the top of their heads, when they probably had scripts and rehearsals and multiple takes.
Overall Message: The goal of this commercial is to gain Verizon customers. Verizon is running a deal where military families can get discounted lines and a free one year subscription to Amazon prime. The commercial opens with a friendly-looking middle aged woman wearing an “army green” coat standing against a white, blank background. As she talks, the commercial cuts to a picture of pure Americana – large family in front of a red barn with blue skies and green grass – and then cuts back to the mom, who is holding her phone to emphasize her ability to keep track of all of her children by using her phone. Next are shots of a young man wearing a blue shirt and khaki pants talking about his wife. The blue of his shirt matches the blue of the uniforms he and his wife both wear when a picture is shown of the both of them. There is a voice over and simplistic text about why military families choose Verizon. The camera cuts out enough to show that the man appears to be standing on a blank set with lighting rigs at the top. There is a voice over and simplistic text about the special rate military families can receive. The mom is shown again, and then the voice over discusses the Amazon prime promotion with an image of a tv show on a phone, and the tv show looks military-ish. There is the tag line of America’s most reliable network, and then the Verizon logo. During the whole commercial a snappy music track plays and then ends with a flourish.
Production: This commercial is all about using the military family appeal. In America, the military family holds almost mythic appeal, and nothing is more pure and patriotic and touching than a military family. Even though the people talking are not in uniform, their clothing mimics military uniform. The two photos shown are not shown full screen – they look like regular snapshots that regular people took. With the blank white background and sound stage backdrop, the total focus is on these two family members talking about how important it is for them to be able to keep in contact with their military loved ones. A mother with sons. A father missing his wife on the other side of the world. The message is that Verizon is patriotic and cares about military families keeping in touch.
Distribution: I don’t have or watch cable television, so my exposure to ads is limited. This Verizon spot played several times when I was watching The Good Place using my iPad Hulu app. By looking at an analytics site, the ad seems to be playing on a variety of channels. It played during a movie on MTV2 and was played during a movie on Comedy Central, and those have been updated as of today, November 3rd, 2019, prior to 12:00pm. This commercial is obviously aimed at the military and their family members, but is also trying to appeal and seem like “a good company” to anyone in the mid-20’s and up demographic who tend to switch phone carriers. What I did find very interesting was that this commercial featured Amazon Prime, and it played on Hulu.
Persuasive techniques:
Visual
Focal Points – Only one person is on screen at a time, and the focus is on them because the background is basically blank. When the family photos are shown, they are the sole focus. There is only one time when a person shares the screen with some large text, so mostly every single shot has a very clear, very minimal focus.
Color – The color detail is very simplistic and subtle, but incredibly interesting. The background and text are all black and white, so all focus is on the people. The first woman who speaks, the mother, wears a coat in a color that is literally called “army green” and she carries a bright red phone. The color of the phone drawls the eye to the phone (it hangs in her hand and isn’t used) and also matches the red of the farmhouse in the picture of her large family. The young man wears a blue collared shirt and khaki pants, and later on we see a picture of him in uniform, and the blues match and the khaki matches his belt.
Aural
Diegetic vs Non-diegetic – All of the informal talking by the family members is diegetic, which seems more relatable, while the technical, sales information is non-diegetic so nothing distracts from the focus on the family members.
Register – The family members talking is very informal, even somewhat halting, to make them seem like they really are just every-day people, no different from anyone else, speaking their true thoughts off the top of their heads, when they probably had scripts and rehearsals and multiple takes.
Reflection
My biggest take-away is the realization of how few commercials I see anymore. I don't have cable television so I mostly watch Netflix (which doesn't have ads) with some Amazon Prime and Hulu. The most frequent ads I ever see are those for Grammerly at the beginning of YouTube videos. There are so many commercials I remember from my childhood, but it's not going to be the same for my son because we don't have cable television.
It is incredibly important for students to be able to analyze persuasive material to determine exactly how people are trying to persuade. I think of how often celebrities endorse some product even though it makes absolutely no sense (such as the Kardashians endorsing slimming teas and other products). Students need to realize when their emotions are being manipulated and how to decipher what is truly logical and what is just appealing to logos.
I teach a persuasive writing unit, and I'm going to have us analyze commercials.
It is incredibly important for students to be able to analyze persuasive material to determine exactly how people are trying to persuade. I think of how often celebrities endorse some product even though it makes absolutely no sense (such as the Kardashians endorsing slimming teas and other products). Students need to realize when their emotions are being manipulated and how to decipher what is truly logical and what is just appealing to logos.
I teach a persuasive writing unit, and I'm going to have us analyze commercials.
