James Newhart
Professor Liu
English 103
26 January 2009
Visual Rhetoric
Lebron James has been featured in many different commercials throughout the past couple of years and is a well known very marketable celebrity, so it is no wonder State Farm chose him to represent their company. State Farm’s advertisement can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQcBYvI08MM. This commercial is a great example of visual rhetoric because it has so many different angles it can be analyzed at and it is trying to persuade an audience to buy its product. To get a large audience to view this advertisement Lebron James built up suspense by telling the world he was making a large announcement so as to get more people to watch their television when this commercial debuted, when in fact it was just him in this commercial having a dream about playing and dominating professional football. This State Farm commercial uses an analogy, ethos, and pathos along with visual and verbal rhetoric to grab the audience’s attention while at the same time selling their product and making the viewer assured that State Farm's insurance is more reputable, respectable and sound than any other insurance company out there.
The audience that this commercial is trying to advertise to is anybody who needs or has insurance. The audience therefore is basically everyone that watches television because everyone obviously either needs or already has insurance. Connecting with an audience as large as this is a difficult task because everyone is unique and has their own individual wants and needs. This makes advertising a specific product to the masses challenging due to the fact that the commercial needs to be able to relate with a majority of people. Knowing this State Farm then produced this commercial that most everyone can relate to and understand. Using Lebron James, a well known professional basketball player, was key in helping the majority of all television viewers relate to this advertisement. Being able to use common sports knowledge of the portrayal of Lebron James’ character is crucial in selling this insurance to the audience.
State Farm uses visual and verbal rhetoric to sell its insurance to the audience in this commercial. Visual rhetoric is everywhere and everybody is exposed to many different pieces of visual rhetoric in a day, so State Farm obviously chose using visual rhetoric to sell its product to its viewers because the most people will see it. It is mainly visual rhetoric because it is not even mentioned that it is a State Farm insurance commercial until the last 10 seconds of it. The first 20 seconds of the advertisement Lebron is catching footballs and winning championships with very little talking and not a word was said about State Farm or insurance. At the end it turns from visual rhetoric into verbal rhetoric when Lebron James states the State Farm Slogan. The use of visual and verbal rhetoric in this advertisement makes State Farm’s argument that their insurance is the most reliable much stronger because the visual rhetoric captures the audience’s attention and the verbal rhetoric helps to persuade the audience once they are paying attention to the commercial that State Farm insurance is the best.
This commercial featured two rhetorical appeals to try to persuade the audience into buying State Farm insurance. The first appeal used is ethos. Our textbook “Envision in depth” defines ethos as “the deliberate use of the speaker’s character as a mode of persuasion” (P. 35). Lebron James is a well-known professional basketball star that people easily recognize and have respect for. When a celebrity like Lebron is in a commercial, the audience will focus more on the commercial and therefore more on the product that is trying to be sold, which in this case is insurance. By using Lebron James in their advertisement, State Farm effectively uses the ethos rhetorical appeal. The second rhetorical appeal used is pathos, which is defined as “an appeal to the emotions” in our book (P.35). Prior to this commercial coming out, Lebron James told the media world that he had a big announcement to make but was very vague and unclear on what the topic of the announcement was going to be. To any basketball fan this so-called announcement sounded like it was going to be Lebron divulging which team he was going to sign with when he becomes a free agent next year. Lebron James is one of the best players in basketball at the moment so a hint at any type of announcement held the sports world in suspense. The media then turned Lebron’s “announcement” into a big story and had much of the professional basketball fan base very interested. Lebron finally went to make his announcement and it turned out it was him in a commercial declaring he was going to play professional football, which is obviously not true. All of the hype built up for Lebron’s announcement helped get an emotional response from professional basketball sports fans therefore using the pathos rhetorical appeal.
State Farm uses an analogy in this commercial to strengthen their argument on why the audience should buy their insurance. Lebron James is portrayed as dependable and reliable football player who is always there to make the big play and help his team win a championship. This is one big analogy for the reliability of State Farm insurance as shown in the last 10 seconds of the commercial when Lebron states “I’m there for the best day of the week,” which he immediately follows by saying the State Farm slogan “State Farm is there.” The use of an analogy in this commercial strengthens the argument that State Farm’s insurance is the insurance the viewer should want to have. According to our textbook analogies are used in visual rhetoric to “make a difficult selling point” and this is exactly why it is used in this advertisement (P. 31). Insurance is hard to sell because it is not tangible but because it was compared to the reliability of Lebron James it helps the viewer feel safer choosing State Farm insurance. This analogy also makes the advertisement easier to understand by the majority of the viewers.
When Lebron James is awoken from his sleep in this advertisement, his dream of being a professional football player ends. The meaning of him being reliable and “always there” on game days helps portray State Farm insurance as the best insurance company out there. Lebron’s dream was one of happiness where he won a championship for the horrible Cleveland Browns, a team that has not made the playoffs in 7 years, yet it seemed too good to be true. After being woken up Lebron seems very somber and almost sad that the dream is over but does the Heisman pose at the end of the commercial signifying that playing professional football will always be in the back of his mind. The analogy of Lebron to reliability occurs because many sports writers pose “what if” questions such as, “What if Lebron played football?” Many people believe he would be an outstanding player who would dominate the game like he does basketball. State Farm then used these comments and these thoughts on Lebron playing professional football and turned them into a very effective selling point in this particular advertisement by relating him and his trustworthiness to their insurance. Lebron dominating football in his dream was also a comparison State Farm wanted to make to itself as a company to make them more sellable to the common viewer.
State Farm effectively captures the audience’s attention and effectively sells their product in this advertisement by comparing a celebrity to the reliability of State Farm insurance. Using this analogy helped the audience grasp the safety of State Farm insurance. Building up hype before this commercial aired to get more viewers was also a very useful technique in selling insurance. The use of ethos and pathos helped the advertisement to be more convincing and appealing which also helps sell the insurance better. The visual and verbal rhetoric used in this State Farm advertisement were critical in selling the product because without any rhetoric the commercial would have no selling point and therefore State Farm would not be able to sell any insurance. Overall State Farm did a very good job in fulfilling many different aspects of rhetoric to be able to merchandise their insurance productively.
Works Cited
1. Christine , Alfano, and Alyssa O'brien. Envision in Depth. New York: Pearson Longman, 2008
2. Youtube. January 21, 2009.
Professor Liu
English 103
26 January 2009
Visual Rhetoric
Lebron James has been featured in many different commercials throughout the past couple of years and is a well known very marketable celebrity, so it is no wonder State Farm chose him to represent their company. State Farm’s advertisement can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQcBYvI08MM. This commercial is a great example of visual rhetoric because it has so many different angles it can be analyzed at and it is trying to persuade an audience to buy its product. To get a large audience to view this advertisement Lebron James built up suspense by telling the world he was making a large announcement so as to get more people to watch their television when this commercial debuted, when in fact it was just him in this commercial having a dream about playing and dominating professional football. This State Farm commercial uses an analogy, ethos, and pathos along with visual and verbal rhetoric to grab the audience’s attention while at the same time selling their product and making the viewer assured that State Farm's insurance is more reputable, respectable and sound than any other insurance company out there.
The audience that this commercial is trying to advertise to is anybody who needs or has insurance. The audience therefore is basically everyone that watches television because everyone obviously either needs or already has insurance. Connecting with an audience as large as this is a difficult task because everyone is unique and has their own individual wants and needs. This makes advertising a specific product to the masses challenging due to the fact that the commercial needs to be able to relate with a majority of people. Knowing this State Farm then produced this commercial that most everyone can relate to and understand. Using Lebron James, a well known professional basketball player, was key in helping the majority of all television viewers relate to this advertisement. Being able to use common sports knowledge of the portrayal of Lebron James’ character is crucial in selling this insurance to the audience.
State Farm uses visual and verbal rhetoric to sell its insurance to the audience in this commercial. Visual rhetoric is everywhere and everybody is exposed to many different pieces of visual rhetoric in a day, so State Farm obviously chose using visual rhetoric to sell its product to its viewers because the most people will see it. It is mainly visual rhetoric because it is not even mentioned that it is a State Farm insurance commercial until the last 10 seconds of it. The first 20 seconds of the advertisement Lebron is catching footballs and winning championships with very little talking and not a word was said about State Farm or insurance. At the end it turns from visual rhetoric into verbal rhetoric when Lebron James states the State Farm Slogan. The use of visual and verbal rhetoric in this advertisement makes State Farm’s argument that their insurance is the most reliable much stronger because the visual rhetoric captures the audience’s attention and the verbal rhetoric helps to persuade the audience once they are paying attention to the commercial that State Farm insurance is the best.
This commercial featured two rhetorical appeals to try to persuade the audience into buying State Farm insurance. The first appeal used is ethos. Our textbook “Envision in depth” defines ethos as “the deliberate use of the speaker’s character as a mode of persuasion” (P. 35). Lebron James is a well-known professional basketball star that people easily recognize and have respect for. When a celebrity like Lebron is in a commercial, the audience will focus more on the commercial and therefore more on the product that is trying to be sold, which in this case is insurance. By using Lebron James in their advertisement, State Farm effectively uses the ethos rhetorical appeal. The second rhetorical appeal used is pathos, which is defined as “an appeal to the emotions” in our book (P.35). Prior to this commercial coming out, Lebron James told the media world that he had a big announcement to make but was very vague and unclear on what the topic of the announcement was going to be. To any basketball fan this so-called announcement sounded like it was going to be Lebron divulging which team he was going to sign with when he becomes a free agent next year. Lebron James is one of the best players in basketball at the moment so a hint at any type of announcement held the sports world in suspense. The media then turned Lebron’s “announcement” into a big story and had much of the professional basketball fan base very interested. Lebron finally went to make his announcement and it turned out it was him in a commercial declaring he was going to play professional football, which is obviously not true. All of the hype built up for Lebron’s announcement helped get an emotional response from professional basketball sports fans therefore using the pathos rhetorical appeal.
State Farm uses an analogy in this commercial to strengthen their argument on why the audience should buy their insurance. Lebron James is portrayed as dependable and reliable football player who is always there to make the big play and help his team win a championship. This is one big analogy for the reliability of State Farm insurance as shown in the last 10 seconds of the commercial when Lebron states “I’m there for the best day of the week,” which he immediately follows by saying the State Farm slogan “State Farm is there.” The use of an analogy in this commercial strengthens the argument that State Farm’s insurance is the insurance the viewer should want to have. According to our textbook analogies are used in visual rhetoric to “make a difficult selling point” and this is exactly why it is used in this advertisement (P. 31). Insurance is hard to sell because it is not tangible but because it was compared to the reliability of Lebron James it helps the viewer feel safer choosing State Farm insurance. This analogy also makes the advertisement easier to understand by the majority of the viewers.
When Lebron James is awoken from his sleep in this advertisement, his dream of being a professional football player ends. The meaning of him being reliable and “always there” on game days helps portray State Farm insurance as the best insurance company out there. Lebron’s dream was one of happiness where he won a championship for the horrible Cleveland Browns, a team that has not made the playoffs in 7 years, yet it seemed too good to be true. After being woken up Lebron seems very somber and almost sad that the dream is over but does the Heisman pose at the end of the commercial signifying that playing professional football will always be in the back of his mind. The analogy of Lebron to reliability occurs because many sports writers pose “what if” questions such as, “What if Lebron played football?” Many people believe he would be an outstanding player who would dominate the game like he does basketball. State Farm then used these comments and these thoughts on Lebron playing professional football and turned them into a very effective selling point in this particular advertisement by relating him and his trustworthiness to their insurance. Lebron dominating football in his dream was also a comparison State Farm wanted to make to itself as a company to make them more sellable to the common viewer.
State Farm effectively captures the audience’s attention and effectively sells their product in this advertisement by comparing a celebrity to the reliability of State Farm insurance. Using this analogy helped the audience grasp the safety of State Farm insurance. Building up hype before this commercial aired to get more viewers was also a very useful technique in selling insurance. The use of ethos and pathos helped the advertisement to be more convincing and appealing which also helps sell the insurance better. The visual and verbal rhetoric used in this State Farm advertisement were critical in selling the product because without any rhetoric the commercial would have no selling point and therefore State Farm would not be able to sell any insurance. Overall State Farm did a very good job in fulfilling many different aspects of rhetoric to be able to merchandise their insurance productively.
Works Cited
1. Christine , Alfano, and Alyssa O'brien. Envision in Depth. New York: Pearson Longman, 2008
2. Youtube. January 21, 2009
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ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, here in Southern California, State Farm continues to blitz radio and other media with its "good neighbor" propaganda. At any time of day, you can hear them talk about being there for victims of the recent fires we had here.
ReplyDeleteState Farm Car Insurance Quotes