Critical Analysis

Bijaya Bista                                                                                                                              bista1

English 1100

04/20/2015

                                        Airtel: Connecting the World

This is a commercial from the parent company Airtel telecommunication established in July 7, 1995,  that shows two children on the borders separated by the fences made up of metal-wires. The children look very sweet and innocent and they belong to two different nations. In the commercial video, two children play football together in between the borders separated with fences. Even though the video only shows two children playing together, its main objective is to showcase the idea that airtel is a better way to communicate people everywhere in the world and it helps to connect people, nations, ideas and emotions from the different parts of the world. The commercial video encourages everyone to use Airtel network to communicate. In order to reach to people and to persuade them, commercials use logos, pathos and ethos. Similarly, in this commercial, ethos, pathos and logos are used thoroughly that make a huge impact on inducing customers to use Airtel as their communication medium.

In the video, at first, one child with a football on the border calls the another child on the borders to join him to play football after he passes the ball to him. He requests the child on the other side  of the border to kick the ball into his side. After his frequent requests, the child kicks the ball into his side. Soon enough, both of them becomes friendly and it is shown by their sweet and innocent smile. He also helps that child to get out off the fence and both get in between the fences and play happily. The video shows that those two children enjoys playing together and it

 

                                                                                                                                                bista 2

looks like they are old friends.. The use of these two children is so critical. The commercial also successfully conveys a message that friendship is simply made through a good communication. Communication plays a vital role in bringing up people together and creating a relationship as portrayed in the commercial. Especially, in today’s world, communication is the most useful and reliable way to maintain relationship. In most of the Airtel commercials, two children or a couple are shown widely. This shows that this commercial has used ethos in the right place. In the commercial, there is a short instrumental music that is very captivating and it carries the emotion of the video. The music is played with a perfect timing, that is in the end part of the commercial, when the children happily get along and play.

The commercial uses the logos and pathos very strongly and purposefully. Logos is the logical way of convincing the audiences and pathos is the emotional way. Even though the borders are mostly the areas that have disputes all the time, the video is trying to convey a message  that a better communication and sharing will definitely help to maintain a good and positive relation and airtel will make that possible. Since, it is an Indian commercial, the borders that are shown are of Pakistan and India and it is very well known that the borders of India and Pakistan are one of those disputable areas for a long time. Airtel telecommunication, with its commercial is trying to show that communication is a great medium to solve those disputes and maintain a friendly relation. The commercial approaches to its audiences logically with its reasoning that communication helps to maintain relationship between India and Pakistan showing that the children get along easily and quickly after communicating.

 

                                                                                                                                              bista3

The commercial can also be related as an inspirational commercial as it is trying to encourage positivity. The commercial is trying to create a positive impact not only in India but also in Pakistan showing the connection of two kids through communication. Airtel adds the emotional aspect in its every commercial to attract the audiences and it basically incorporates the historical event into its commercial that the audiences can relate to.                                                                                                                                               

Communication has always been and still is a most important aspect that influence the relations of people and places. It is the great way to connect the world and make it unified. Communication is one of the most important aspects of human civilization. Communication is a must in changing and developing the world. The commercial nicely explains the importance of communication; as in the commercial, the background voice says “ there is no wall, no barrier that can keep us apart if only we talk to each other.” This is a very appealing message that the advertising video carries and it is very genuine and ethical. Now, the world without communication will sound clueless and meaningless. The commercial necessarily reached its targeted audiences as being able to capture their attention.

 

Critical Analysis: Imported from Detroit

Orlando Sanchez

English 11000-B

4/20/15

Critical Analysis: Imported from Detroit

            Detroit has long been known as ‘the motor city” and the heart of America’s auto industry. Big companies such as Ford, General Motors and Chrysler provided employment to thousands of Detroit residents. However for a while, the city has been in a harsh decline, becoming apparent during the financial crisis of 2007-2008 and reaching its climax when it was declared bankrupt on December 3, 2013. There are many factors that led Detroit to bankruptcy such as corruption and too much borrowing, however perhaps its biggest problem was that it relied too much on a single industry- the automobile industry. The “Imported from Detroit” campaign is Chryslers attempt to show that Americas auto industry is not dead and that it can compete with the sought after foreign import cars.

            Chrysler is considered one of the “Big Three” American automobile manufacturers; however it was bought by Fiat-an Italian company, on January 1, 2014. The “Imported from Detroit” campaign was first launched in 2011 with its first commercial featuring Detroit native rapper Marshall Mathers. The commercial first aired during the 2011 Super Bowl, an event watched almost exclusively by Americans. Chrysler’s purpose with this campaign and the tagline “Imported from Detroit” is to show its main market which is North America, that there is no need to look overseas for a quality vehicle. It also shows that Detroit is still a large contributor to the American culture and economy despite the challenges it has face.

            The first commercial aired as part of the campaign is title “Born of Fire” and features popular rapper Marshall Mathers, better known as “Eminem”. The advertisement consists primarily of different shots of Detroit, showing numerous landmarks as well as factories. Using both a popular celebrity and famous landmarks help to show that, in addition to the advertisements target market of North America, the ad is also aimed at the residents of Detroit. Mather’s appearance in the commercial is their way of targeting the younger generation.

If a young person’s role model drives a Chrysler, then they will want to as well. While showing numerous parts of the city, the advertisement contains a voice over which speaks indirectly of the struggles the city has faced and how it has persevered. Lines such as “What does this city know about luxury?” and “What does a town that’s been to hell and back know about the finer things in life?” (Chrysler Eminem Super Bowl Commercial) are included to stir the emotions of not only those from Detroit but also those from the U.S. It is Chrysler’s way of stating that despite all the hardships, the city of Detroit is still able to stand up and engineer and produce amazing cars such as the Chrysler 300 shown in the advertisement.  In addition to the voiceover, Chrysler also utilizes music to appeal to the emotions of the audience.

The song “Lose Yourself”, written and performed by Mathers is playing in the background. Not only is this one of Mather’s well-known songs, but the lyrics also contain an important message. According to Chrysler, the “lyrics speak to the ability to do anything we set our mind to and that failure is not an option. The Chrysler brand, the company and its employees have adopted the principle that failure is not an option.” (Chrysler.com). The message of not giving in to failure is one that hits close to home for both Chrysler and Detroit who continue on despite difficulties after the recession. The final moments of the commercial also feature a choir singing in a theatre which displays “Keep Detroit Beautiful” above the entrance as Mathers exits his Chrysler 200 and enters. The choir stops singing when Mathers walks in. These factors are how Chrysler uses Pathos, or emotional appeal, to appeal to the emotions of their target audience.

The commercial also utilizes Ethos, or ethical appeal to attempt to get people to buy their product. Again, the voice over in the advertisement speaks about the hardworking culture that made Detroit the heart of the American automobile industry    in the past, and how that same culture has ingrained itself in the new generations to make Detroit great again. In addition, the visuals play a part as well, with shots showing factories and smoke stacks to push the image of the city being productive, and a mural depicting blue-collar workers hard at work. The final line spoken by Mathers at the end of the advertisement “This is Detroit, and this is what we do” serves as a testament to the hardworking ethics of those from Detroit (Chrysler Eminem Super Bowl Commercial).

Logos or logical appeal is seen in this commercial through the commercials tagline. The tagline “Imported From Detroit” actually does not make sense as a sentence. Detroit is in the United States so it is impossible to import something from Detroit. However the commercials logic comes from Chrysler’s insistence that their new vehicle is so luxurious that it is easy to mistake it for an exotic, imported car. This commercial specifically focuses on the “Detroit” part of the tagline because it is set and shot in Detroit and the voiceover speaks of the city’s struggles. It is Chrysler’s way of saying that luxury can be found here in the United States, even in a place like Detroit, and thus there is no need to seek luxury elsewhere. Their goal with this commercial and the entire campaign is to compete with the more sought after imported automobiles such as those made by companies like Honda, BMW, and Audi.

Chrysler hoped to move people who saw this commercial and have them considering a purchase of one of their new vehicles. The “Born of Fire” commercial was successful in getting people to talk and think about the Chrysler Brand. The commercial went on to win various awards, including four “Gold Lions” at the Cannes Lions 58th International Festival of Creativity, The awards won include those for best music, best direction, best script, best automotive commercial, and a “Bronze Lion” for best editing (Chrysler.com). In addition, the success of the commercial can be seen by Chrysler’s performance for that year. For 2011, Chrysler stated that it made $183 million as revenue rose to $55 billion (CBSNews.com). This marks a huge turnaround for the company, who lost $652 million in 2010 while it worked to revamp its model lineup (CBSNews.com). This is good news because not only has Chrysler made a comeback, but it showed good signs that the American auto industry and the city of Detroit would also be able to make a comeback.

In today’s world we have many options for almost every product. Because of this competition, it is crucial for companies and corporations to convince the average consumer that their product is better than the rest. This is done by using the Greek philosopher Aristotle’s rhetorical appeals known as logos, ethos and pathos. Effective advertisements are those who appeal to the audience’s logic, ethics and emotions and this is seen in Chryslers “Born of Fire”. By using clever tactics such as setting, music and a featured celebrity, Chrysler was able to create an advertisement which was able pull their audience in and make their product a desire of those who have seen it.

Works Cited

““Chrysler Brand’s 2011 Super Bowl Commercial "Born of Fire" Takes Home Five Awards at

the Cannes Lions 58th International Festival of Creativity”. Media.Chrysler.com.

Chrysler. n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2015

Chrysler. “Chrysler Eminem Super Bowl Commercial-Imported From Detroit” Online Video

Clip. Chrysler. Youtube.com. 5 Feb. 2011. Web. 10 Apr. 2015

“Big Jump in January Chrysler Sales; Company Posts $183M Profit.” CBSNews.com. Cbs

Interactive, 1 Feb. 2012. 18 Apr. 2015

For Pnina

http://www.payscale.com/gender-lifetime-earnings-gap?r=1


Note the sources at the bottom where the data was gathered from. You may be able to use those yourself. -JD

My dad is liar

                                                                        My dad is a liar       

                        Argumentation is to persuade the reader that your ideas are more valid than someone else. The philosophe Aristotle has classified three type of persuasion. The first one is logos. Logos referring to logic is everything that can be proved and accepted as truth.  An argument based on logos doesn’t not required personal opinion but just facts. The second one is Ethos, this persuasion   acts on the personal emotion. The author sometimes can decide to act on the feeling of the lector or the viewer. Not all advertisement requite the three quotes. In some video you will only find Ethos. Most of the time in the smoking ads emotional reaction is basically required. At last we have Pathos which is a kind of personal demonstration of the author. This demonstration is to show to the readers or the viewer in case of an ads that he is someone who is listening, understanding and want to show solution. We will try to analysis these three elements trough the following ads.

                  ‘’ You can’t change your destiny, but you can create your own’’. This is a life insurance ads that support family. The video shows that they pay great attention on the effort that the parents are doing every day to make a better future for their children. Out there, parents are working hard to ameliorate their lives’ condition and furnish a good education to their kids. MetLife wants to help parents and Guardian by bringing a light in the future pathway of their children.

                  The author has used Ethos because the ads affect your personal feeling. This connection wakes up your emotion and makes you feel pain. Make people feel pain or sad, is one of the best way to have a person exactly where you want him to be. This video is one of the most sadness I have ever seen. It has the capacity to bring tear to your eyes. And when tears come out, you become sensitive. In addition, you are ready to open your brain to anything you think that can complex this. At the emotional point, a human become like a sleeping water. Even the finger of a child can create new movement.

              The video has used a family behavior to introduce its service in the society. The Dad and his daughter are the personage used in this projection. This short story used to happen in a real life and that’s why it affects your emotion at this point.  At the beginning of the story, everything looks perfect. The child and the dad were both happy. In a letter, the little girl describes her happiness with her dad. Dad represents her superhero. The story has been told by the kid. The kids has explained how strong and protective his dad is. That part of the video is really realistic. Most of the time, a child knows only what their parents show them. The only thing that is not realistic fact is that the story is being tell using the voice of the child. This is like an ads I have seen years ago preaching against abortion. The one who was speaking was the baby inside the stomach of the mother. There is no way that could be true, but it was so emotional. That is the same thing that happened in this video, a child can’t write that kind of story. But, using the voice of the child makes the projection so attractive.  The best part of the video is exactly when the dad is surprised to see that the daughter has understood everything. The part when the Happy Dad bring him to school and after run to work. In the normal life, a child can’t be that smart to figure out what was going on. The fact they show she did make the video more chocked.

               This video is not only emotional, but also it is a logical one. This video implies that the day you’ve decided to have a child is also the day you’ve decided to sacrifice yourself for his or her own good. The day you’ve decided to wake up early and go to bed late, to take two to three jobs for some etc… All that is because you must always love someone more than yourself and a child future, his happiness worth all of that. It is always going to pay at the end. When you do all the sacrifice your child is happy, they bring good grades home, they recognize your hard work and show more respect and be more motivate in whatever that they are doing. And you as a good parent in return will be proud and honored. It is not because it has used thing in the real life to do so. But because it is connected that thing with the kind of articles he is offering. As many other company MetLife offers different kind of insurance. To offer these kind of service all you need to do is to push people to see that life can be better if you accept my service. You don’t need to lies to your child and hide your sadness. This aspect reflects to the Logos. After seeing this video, the viewer will use is reason before acting. What is happening in my life and why should I do. This short story already acting on your emotion, now is pushing you to take action if you convince that the condition of the dad is the same as your

              After influencing your emotion and push you to reason the author didn’t stay different. Even if he doesn’t show itself on the screen, he let you know who he is. He has used Pathos. By presenting it these images he show itself as someone who’s know about life, someone who understand what is going on and want to bring solutions. He shows that he understand that Sometimes parents want to give the best education to their children. As human being, we all make mistakes. We cannot never satisfy a person at hundred percent (100%), there will always be a margin of error which might appear as 2% or 3%. Every decision making has good and bad side, positive and negative consequences. The strategies using to help someone can turn out to be the worse experiences that this person has never lived in his/her life and can induce this person to become your adversary or hater. An author’s always push his reader to have a positive ideas about his personality. On that video what we can see is a man who is listening or maybe has been in this situation one.              

                 No matter how emotional this story is, some people will still not being convincing to service offer by MetLife. The long of the video, the little has been present with an adult character, something who can’t be possible. For her age there is no way she could understand sacrifice of his parents. And one of the other problem of the video is that the little girl say” he lies about having a job”. That can’t be. Because in the video the dad has been showing while working. The producer should correct that part and say “he lies about having a good job’’. This quote will make more sense. Not everyone will pay attention to these detail. Because he emotional aspect already cover all your sense. A producer don’t need to correct this as a mistake; only a little group of person curious will see this.

                     

  Work cited

   MetLife, Hong Gong. My Dad is a Liar. Emotional commercial YouTube, February 3 2015  

 

Raven K- Dove Real Beauty Sketches Critical Analysis

Raven King

Eng 110

4/20/2015

Critical Analysis

Dove Real Beauty Sketches

The way women see themselves is dramatically different from how others perceive them. We have a tendency to be much harsher and critical on ourselves than others when it comes to body weight and physical appearance, when in reality our descriptions are merely exaggerations of the truth. Comparing one’s features to those of another shows the level of self-esteem of a woman and shines light on how society has programmed our views. In 2013, Dove conducted a compelling social experiment to bring this to life using a group of women, by creating the short film Dove Real Beauty Sketches produced by Oglivy and Mather ad agency; which explores how women view their own beauty in contrast to what outsiders see.  This short film exhibits examples of pathos, ethos and logos.

Unilever, a company that was created in 1930 by William Hesketh Lever, the founder of Lever Bros, owns Dove.  Along with this brand they also own brands like Tresemme, Vaseline, Ben & Jerry’s, and Axe—a company that is known for their misogynistic ads using women and sexual attraction to promote the use of their products.  According to Unilever, their aim is to make a positive impact in many ways: through our brands, our commercial operations and relationships, through voluntary contributions, and through the various other ways in which we engage with society.[1] Unilever’s Dove brand has been conducting a marketing campaign called Dove Campaign for Real Beauty that aims to celebrate women’s natural beauty since 2004.  The video launched in 4 key markets, United States, Canada, Brazil and Australia, and was then produced and uploaded in 25 languages to 46 Dove YouTube channels across remaining countries.  Dove is committed to building positive self-esteem and inspiring all women and girls to reach their full potential.

Each woman is the subject of two portraits drawn by FBI-trained forensic sketch artist Gil Zamora who cannot see his subjects: one based on her own description and the other using a stranger’s observations.  Before the session was set to begin with the sketch artist, each of the women were unknowingly asked to spend time with a stranger without being told why.  Zamora then drew a second sketch of each woman – but this time it was taken from the strangers’ descriptions of each woman. Most of the sketches that were created from the strangers’ point of view showed a more beautiful, happier and typically a more accurate version of the women.  The results show clearly how when it comes to their physical appearance, they are their biggest critics and put the most pressure on themselves. When asked to describe themselves, each of the women referred to their physical features in an overall negative way. For example, the use of phrases like “rounder face,” “big forehead” and “protruding jaw”.  But the strangers who were asked to describe the same person used more positive words and phrases.. The extreme differences between the two sketches brought up a number of emotions and strong reactions when each woman is shown her two portraits side by side, which is an example of pathos.  They all agreed that their self-perceptions were harsh and more time should be spent appreciating the things that they do like about themselves.

An example of ethos is the problem of body image caused by ads and commercials in the media.  Concerns about physical appearance have become so common among women these days, much more than men.  It typically begins in the early years in childhood and continues to affect them throughout their lives.  The idea of having the perfect body according to our societies standards is constantly drilled into the minds of young girls, at a time when impressions and the need for acceptance to be so important.  Even before the stage of puberty, they are told that in order to receive praise you must live up to the standards of being pretty and skinny.  At this point, young girls will become concerned with their body weight and physical appearance; which is when unhealthy eating habits become more prevalent.

A constant reminder of the so-called “perfect woman” in the media directly impacts girls’ confidence in their body.  Seeing these images and ads only gives young women something false to compare themselves to.  Meanwhile, these exact images have been photo shopped and airbrushed to showcase the idea of perfection.  When in fact these models do not even look the same in pictures as they do in real life.  The media chooses to tell the narrow view of what beauty is, rather than to tell the whole story.  However, without creating a definition that also includes traits that are far beyond that of only physical appearance, the future generation of young girls will definitely miss the chance to identify with a diverse set of women they can relate to.[2] Being exposed to these ads using thin models only creates insecurity and makes these women self-conscious of the traits they possess.  These women have been trained to think that the traits and features they have are not good enough, so they view them as a negative part of themselves.  The media has programmed women to think that if you do not look like the girl in the magazine, on television and in the music videos, the only way to come close is to change what you already have. However, there is also evidence of logos. Every woman internalizes these images differently, they may not go to the extreme and get plastic surgery, or develop eating disorders but they might just accept that their features are unique.

There are some questions and critiques that rise when it comes to this ad campaign. It clear that Dove began this Real Beauty campaign with the intentions of exploring the factors that contribute to low self-esteem in young girls and women today.  They compare themselves to pictures and ads of thin and attractive models that are labeled as the “ideal woman”. She embodies the perfect body weight, height, and physical features that many of us are striving to obtain.  However, there are some areas that fall short of this goal they are trying to reach in this film. All 4 participants are Caucasian, three are blonde with blue eyes, all are thin, and all are young (the oldest may be about 40 years old); the majority of the non-featured participants are thin, young white women as well. At least three black women were in fact drawn for the project, two were briefly shown with the sketch artist describing themselves to him in a negative light, but they were both lighter skinned. A black man is shown as one of the people describing one of the women, as he comments on her “pretty blue eyes”.  An Asian woman is briefly shown looking at the completed drawings of her and you see the back of a black woman’s head, but neither of them is shown speaking. People of color are onscreen for less than ten seconds out of more than six minutes of footage.  The diversity of women that was the goal was seen but not executed accurately.  A different way of conducting this experiment could have been that instead of comparing the women’s views to those of someone else’s, they could have compared sketch of her views and comments with that of a real photograph.

Body image is something that every woman may struggle with at some time in her life. Whether she focuses on weight gain or physical appearance, it is up to her to come to conclusion that her features are unique and something to never be ashamed of. The models that are seen everyone have been the template of the “ideal woman”, which in all reality is a standard that is unattainable.

---

[1] http://www.unilever.com/aboutus/ourhistory/

[2] http://selfesteem.dove.us/Articles/Written/Role_of_media.aspx

Parent’s Sacrifices - Critical Analysis

ad link the analysis is on - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZgmj5ay5Bk

Parent’s Sacrifices

            The commercial My Dad is a Liar is a popular commercial from Hong Kong by an insurance company, MetLife. Meaningful commercials are popularly shared throughout the internet. International commercials from Asian parts of the world are very popular because of the strong stories they carry. In the United States, commercials are popular as well but few that can compete with My Dad is a Liar for example. The most popular commercials in the US are usually the million dollar ads that play during a super bowl for a few seconds. For example, the Old Spice or Doritos commercials seem to be among the most popular and are usually just for humorous purposes. The commercial My Dad is a Liar features a little school girl and her dad. The girl’s mother or any other family member is not presented in the video, so the little girl is perhaps solely dependent on her father. The commercial is about how the little girl describes her father in an assignment. The father is happy to start off reading with positive characteristics his daughter wrote about him. He then stumbles and is shocked to see what she wrote next, his daughter wrote that he is a lair. The little girl revels in her assignment of being aware of the struggles her father goes through. Although the father tries to mask that they are doing alright, the little girl is able to observe that is not the case (My Dad). My Dad is a Liar uses credibility and affects the audience’s emotions by the successful use of camera angles, lighting, and various settings.    

            MetLife decided to use a commercial as the medium to address its audience. The target audience for this commercial were parents or any type of families who have loved ones. In the commercial, MetLife tries to connect with people with emotion as is shown throughout; the video shows love between the girl and the father in hope of relating to the audience that they also possess that same kind of love with their children. MetLife also wants the audience to gain loyalty to the brand and hopes its audience will carry on the idea that the company is just as loving and caring as it is presented in the commercial. The audience MetLife was targeting affected the type of stance, or attitude, they took into the commercial which also projected into the tone. MetLife took a comforting and soothing approach hoping to get into the heads of its audience by using a lot of emotion. MetLife shows its audience that parents will make any type of sacrifices for their children even if that means lying to them. MetLife presents its intended message by the use of valid credibility, persuading audience’s emotions, camera angles, lighting, and various settings.

            Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, or MetLife for short, is an insurance company founded by a group of New York City businessmen in 1863. The company started out by insuring Civil War sailors and soldiers against disabilities resulting from war. The company had a very rough beginning and was operating at a deficit. After a few years, the company dropped the casualty business and decided to focus only on life insurance business. The company followed many policy changes as time went on. After using a successful strategy, in 1909, MetLife became the nation’s largest life insurer that holds the position until today. What started out as a small business in New York City, is now serving 90 million customers in more than 50 countries (MetLife).

            Ethos, Pathos, and Logos are the appeals of persuasion used to convince an audience.  Ethos is an ethical appeal and means to convince an audience by the character of the author. Pathos is an emotional appeal and means to persuade an audience by appealing to their emotions. Logos is an appeal to logic and means to persuade by reasoning and using actual facts and statistics. The commercial My Dad is a Liar uses Ethos and Pathos to persuade its audience.

            The commercial uses Ethos as a way of persuasion. People tend to believe others based on how much respect they have for them. For example, when it comes to any medical treatments, people will be more likely to trust what the doctor has to say more than anyone else. MetLife is a well-known international insurance company so that is attributing to its persuasion of credibility. The commercial is narrated by the little girl all throughout and that is an example of ethos because ethos can mean the type of language used for an audience (My Dad). Children are known for never lying and their sometimes brutal honesty, therefore its use is effective. Then, a low angle camera shot is used, focused on the dad while the little girl is on his shoulders and she is describing him as her superman (My Dad). This scene shows how much the little girl respects her dad and sees him as an authority that’s why a low angle shot is used. This ethos scene was used so the audience can relate as being a hero for their children. A close up shot is then used on the little girl as she receives an award at school; first thing she does is turn to her dad and show him her award (My Dad). This scenes shows one of the reasons for her dad’s sacrifices, so that his daughter can go to school and do well; MetLife wants the audience to relate to their sacrifices and how they want their children to do well at school as well. After, the father tries to land a job at an office but is turned down. The next several scenes show the father performing jobs such as: cleaning windows, washing dishes, handing out advertisements, and performing manual labor. In all of those scenes the father looks very exhausted and performs tiring physical jobs (My Dad). This is ethos because it shows what a hardworking and loving father he is. MetLife used this so that the audience can realize that they are working hard for their children. MetLife successfully incorporates ethos into the ads scenes.   

            The commercial uses Pathos as a way of persuading the audience. Many scenes use different settings and lightings, which as a result evoke an emotional appeal to the audience. The use of the little girl narrating also has a huge appeal to the audience’s emotions. Not only is it only the girl’s pleasing voice, but also the violin and piano sounds played throughout the commercial making it more emotional. The opening scene has the camera rolling down the little girl’s essay with a characteristic children hand writing (My Dad). The little girl’s voice appeals to the audience’s emotion because of the innocence that it possesses. The father performing various types of jobs also appeals to the audience’s emotion; some of the audience can relate because they perform those same types of manual labor jobs that require a lot of physical work. When the ad begins, the girl and the father are walking through a park with a lot of sun light across their faces. The camera also switches between other dads with their children walking through the park to the school (My Dad). This scene is Pathos because of the joy that is presented on the girl’s and the dad’s face while walking together. A park was also chosen as the setting because although parents might not walk their children to school, most do take their children to the park, creating a wider relatable audience. Other settings include the places the father works in and during those scenes the lighting as well as the background music tends to be darker and dull (My Dad). The transition of the music is synchronized with the narration of the little girl when she says “he lies” which brings a lot of emotion to the audience. The little girl praises her dad in her essay saying he is “the sweetest daddy in the world...the smartest…the most clever… the kindest” (My Dad). This appeals to the audience’s emotion because it shows how the little girl views her parent. MetLife successfully captured the audience’s emotion through the use of different types of film techniques.

            Although in order to successfully persuade an audience all three modes have to be present, the outstanding and overwhelming use of pathos in this commercial made it successful in its own way. The commercial uses pathos and ethos in order to persuade its audience. The use of different types of settings, lightings, camera angles, and sounds made it more persuasive and reinforced ethos and pathos. The commercial brings a tear to the eye, especially if you are re-watching the ad several times.      

Works Cited

"MetLife Begins." MetLife. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2015.
     <https://www.metlife.com/about/corporate-profile/metlife-history/
     metlife-begins/index.html>.

My Dad is a Liar - Emotional Commercial. Youtube.
     N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/
     watch?v=EZgmj5ay5Bk>. 

           

Critical Analysis - Jovan Tewira

Jovan Tewira

Professor Nayanda Moore

ENGLISH 11000-B

April 20^th, 2015

“My Dad’s Story, Dream for My Child” Critical Analysis

An insurance company is really important for everyone in improving life, in today’s society. A lot of random bad things could happen to anyone anytime, especially in financial aspect. Therefore, an insurance company is able to insure that when a bad situation occurs, it would not affect people’s life, badly and severely. MetLife, Inc., the holding corporation for Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, is one of the well-known insurance companies in the world whose works have been proven through their great service toward the customers. Its headquarter is located in New York City. The sole purpose of the company is to help people to get through an unwanted situation in an impromptu situation, such as bankruptcy. Their products are insurance services, such as Life, Dental, Disability, Annuities, Auto and Home, and Critical Illness Insurances. There are a lot of achievements that MetLife has achieved, such as “Best Managed Insurance Company for 2008” by Forbes Magazine. Also, MetLife was on the list of “Top 50 Companies for Diverse Managers” in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. MetLife was named as the first National Insurer in the U.S. to offer identity-theft resolution services at no extra premium and still continue to do so until now. From all these achievements, we can see that how professional the company is in managing and serving their customers regarding their services and products that they sell.

Advertising is the major part in selling anything. MetLife promotes their products through advertisements on television. Usually, Insurance ads on TV are not straightforward telling the audiences about their products. Most of the time, they tell a sad story about some aspects in our lives. One of their inspiring ads is “My Dad’s Story, Dream for My Child”. I found this inspiring because the story is about a father who working really hard and trying to do his best to make him and his daughter to survive, and most importantly to make his own daughter happy. He did it without telling his daughter because he is afraid that when he tells this to her, she is going to feel bad and unhappy about it. In the beginning of the story, there are a father and his daughter who are walking in the park while the father is reading a letter that his daughter writes about him. All that his daughter knows about her father is that he is so hard working, generous, kind, and dependable. But, all of it turns out to be lie. The truth is that he does not have anything much for his family. Eventually, the daughter knows it all and in the end of the letter, she said that her dad is a liar because she knows that her dad actually is really tired and stressed over everything, but still her dad does not want her to know, just only to make her happy. In the ending scene, both father and daughter are seen hugging each other, as the father was very sorry because he has to lie to his beloved daughter. In my opinion, through this advertisement, the company does a good job in telling a story, but I think they don’t clearly tell the audiences about what products they are trying to sell to people. They only stated in the very end of the video, “We all have dream for our children. Share yours with us, and it could become reality”, which I think kind of vague because it could mean anything, not just offering some insurance services. They could do a better job in promoting this advertisement, if they could add something that can explain about what MetLife does, such as the list of services that the company provides for everyone. Therefore, everything would make sense from the purpose of the company and the purpose of the video, because not everyone knows MetLife really well, although it’s such a prestigious company.

According to the persuasion principles, this ad mainly focuses on pathos principle, which is using emotion to attract people. They use a story about a father and a daughter who were very happy in the beginning, but ended up making the audience tearing up. As I saw in my class, when this video was played, most people were really touched by the story; even some students were tearing up too. In general, pathos is the common way that people use in an advertisement to attract the audiences, because when people get emotional, they tend to be more interested to the matter and they will remember the advertisement better because the story. The way it works in this ad is that the viewers are shown a scene about a happy family life between father and daughter, then as the story goes, it becomes a really touching story that make people to be more interested to the story, and they would remember the ad is from MetLife. Also, it would make them think it over and over again about the things that the advertiser is trying to sell to the audiences. I think the company really did a good job in this ad with getting people emotional, in order to attract people to the advertisement. But in my opinion, I would say they could do better, if they were not only focused between a father and daughter story. Because of insurance is for everyone, I think they could make another touching story that related to everyone; like a whole family, friends, or any other people. Instead of just focusing on one family, they could make some number of scenes of different families about their difficulties within each of them. Then, in the end, they could make it emotional too by showing how they overcome their problems and change their life to the better. But, overall, they did a really good job in promoting the ad through the pathos principle.

There is a little logos principle in here. It is when they gave the statement “A child’s future is worth every sacrifice”. They want to inform people, especially parents, to be aware of their child’s future that they have to give the best for the sake of their future, and one way to make this happening is to have an insurance company, like MetLife. In my opinion, the logos is not very obvious to have people to notice. The statement has a really broad meaning. People who do not know MetLife, would have no idea what does the statement mean. When I tried to interpret the statement, I had to think twice also because it could really mean anything, and the assumption that I got was that it’s about the fact that the children deserves a better future, and in order to get that is by buying the services from MetLife. Alternatively, they could add statistics in the end about the impact of not having an insurance and having an insurance; or just the benefits of having an insurance to their lives. Therefore, people would get convinced about having insurance because there are some concrete proofs that the experts have done. If they did that, I think they would get more people to buy their products.

            Ethos, or ethical appeal, is not seen in this ad. I think they only use the logos and pathos through the entire story, which I think it, is not enough to convince the viewers yet. Ethos holds important part in the persuasion process too, as the definition is persuasion by the author credibility. Besides of just getting attracted to the ad and shown some proofs about the reality, the audiences should be convinced also that the person who says all of these is a dependable source that could be trusted in. In this ad, they could add some ethos by adding some testimonies from the satisfied customers about their service, or some information about the company’s achievements that were achieved because of their great customer services. Therefore the prospective buyers would feel really sure about their decision to assure their lives with the company’s services. In order to make people to be convinced, it is not only between the emotion and logic, they have to believe with what they see too, if they are not sure with what they are going to depend on, they will not even consider to do it.

            In conclusion, MetLife really did a great job at this ad, but I think there are some aspects that they could do better to make this ad more engaging and interesting. I realized that without telling the audience the really meaning about what they are trying to say, some people could get confused along with the story. They could think that “Yes, the story is good, but what is the meaning behind all of this?” They could assume that MetLife is not an insurance company, who is trying to promote their service, but it could be any other company. So, another thing that the parent company should fix is the clear interpretation of their ads.