Advertisement Rhetorical Analysis

This rhetorical review is based on a video advertisement published/uploaded on YouTube by HeinekenWalkInFridge. The video commercial features Heineken beer, a major name in the beer business. The advertisement is a 30-second video that uses a lot of imagination to promote the beer. The target demographic for this Heineken beer commercial is likely to be young men aged 30-40 who can afford the beer. The entire video was filmed in a spacious flat, as seen by the huge walk-in wardrobe and walk-in fridge. The scene appears to be a house party, most likely a housewarming party, as the hostess leads three other ladies to peek at her new home. The fridge is filled with Heineken beer while the closet is filled with clothes and shoes. To demonstrate that the beer is not just an ordinary beer but rather a brand premium meant for the rich, the large walk-in fridge is filled with Heineken beer. The purpose of this paper is to examine advertisement by looking at the rhetorical appeals including the ethos, the pathos and the logos.

Ethos

Refers to the credibility and trustworthiness. It is an appeal to ethics and is a way of convincing another person of the character and the credibility of the persuader. Beer is s a depressant drug and in many countries around the world, they have some restriction when it comes to beer or drugs generally. Such restrictions include age limits for drinking and for some countries, even the drinking hours have some limitations. In the advert, all the actors in the advertisement are adults, probably in their early to mid-thirties. Since this is a beer advert, using young children would create a lot of challenges in getting the advert to be aired in some countries with higher drinking age limit. Additionally, they get to remain within the generally acceptable legal and moral limits for most of their target markets especially the United States of America.

Logos

Logos refers to how the advertisement appeals to reason or logic and is a means of persuading an audience by reason or logic. The advertisement is a perfect example of how companies advertise their products using logos. The use of logos is exhibited in the way that the company used stereotypes. The main logos in the advertisement is the general men’s great desire for bear, while for women, it is the love for material possession. When the women walked into the walk-in closet they squealed upon seeing it closet full of clothes, shoes and other fashion apparels. The squealing would make one think that the advert is just another fashion commercial. It is at this moment that another group of characters are introduced. They are men who scream and cheer loudly that they interrupt the ladies, who halt their squealing and turn to look at them. The men behave in the same manner when they see the walk-in fridge filled with Heineken like the ladies when they entered the walk-in closet. These stereotypes are often well received in the society since men tend to love beer more than women while women love beauty and fashion more than men. The advert presents the two stereotypes in a way that the audience can easily relate to and thus can easily do a parallel comparison.

Pathos

Pathos is the way an advertisement appeals to one’s emotions of feeling in some way. It is used to create an emotional response so as to convince audience of an argument. The advertisement effectively utilized pathos which is what captures the attention of the audience. The emotion that the male actors show in the advert by squealing like the women in the same advert appear to mean that it is awkward for men to express their emotions in a similar way. However, it is the squealing of the men that creates humor and amusement to the audience in the advert since squealing is generally regarded as a feminine behavior. It is a creative way of pleasing Heineken potential consumers of the potential positive emotions that are associated with drinking beer, and in this case, Heineken beer. Heineken aims to largely appeal to the male consumers and thus they use strong pathos in the commercial.

Conclusion

The advertisement is a great piece which mainly aims at attract to the male customers. Therefore, to achieve the aim, it employs pathos by using humor. Heineken recognizes stereotypes exist in the society and therefore, applies logos to reinforce the existing stereotypes of men and women. As a global company in the beer industry Heineken has a large target group made up of all kind of people and therefore, the use of a house party setting increases the range of their target audience which translates to customers. The effectiveness of the advert is grounded on the pre-existing stereotypes in the society with regards to identification of the objects of femininity versus the objects of masculinity.

Works Cited

HeinekenWalkInFridge. “New Heineken Commercial – Very Funny.” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 29 Dec 2008. Web. 7 March 2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1ZZreXEqSY