Critical Analysis - James Huang

James Huang

Professor Nayanda Moore

Freshman Composition

4/20/15

                                                            Love for Life

            Every advertisement's purpose is to attract the viewer, to connect with the viewer, and to persuade the viewer using that connection between them. An advertisement achieves its purpose by applying three types of appeal within its ad. These three types of persuasive appeal is known as Ethos, Pathos, and Logos appeal. Ethos is an appeal of the ethics or morality. It is used to persuade viewers through its ethical appeal. Pathos is an appeal of emotions. It is used to sway viewers through intense emotion that eventually forms an agreement between the viewer and the advertisement. Last, but not least, Logos is an appeal of logic. It is used to convince viewers through logic and reason. A company that correctly uses these three types of appeal in their video advertisement would be MetLife as it advertises for life insurance.

            In MetLife's advertisement, a story unfolds. A man and his daughter is shown walking happily through the park together on a sunny day towards the child's elementary school. As he's walking, he reads off a letter that his daughter wrote for him. The letter is read with the innocent daughter's voice, "Daddy is the sweetest daddy in the world." As she begins to compliment her dad, fun, upbeat, and cheerful music play and we see flashbacks of very sweet times of the two. We see the father making funny faces to make induce her laughter. We see him walking her to school with a suit just like every other dad and daughter. We see him teaching her daughter at home with a smile on both their faces. We see the father's kindness as he buys her delights such as ice cream or cake. "He is my superman." Everything seemed perfect. "Daddy is just great... but he lies." This is when the child no longer holds onto her father and no longer skips in joy. She stops with her back facing her father as he held the letter in shock. "He lies about having a job. He lies about having money. He lies that he's not tired. He lies that he's not hungry. He lies that we have everything. He lies about his happiness." Instant flashbacks of the behind the scenes of the happy moments that were shown prior, appear. Her father is seen running off to forms of manual labor such as construction and window washing. He's shown giving his share of food to his daughter, going into the employment office with desperation, and putting up a smile for her. "He lies because of ME." When this line drops, the daughter is seen turning around and slowly walking towards her father with her head looking down in innocence. The father almost immediately drops himself to the ground to hold his daughter and breaks down in tears as she does too. A child's future is worth every sacrifice. Pursue more from life. The video advertisement ends as the family of two is walking down the road with the daughter in her father's arms, smiling. MetLife. The blue logo of MetLife is shown across the screen at the very end after.

            MetLife's purpose for this commercial is to persuade the viewers to buy their life insurance.  Life insurance is an insurance that insures money will be received by the insured person's loved ones after his or her death. Although life insurance can sound grim, this advertisement says otherwise. This advertisement featured Asian actors and was from a Chinese branch of MetLife, but it was voiced in English. This is because MetLife was not targeting one specific group of one language. MetLife was targeting Asians as well as Americans with this ad. This commercial of MetLife's may seem that it is specifically targeting parents with its lines of persuasion using keywords such as "daddy" or "child", but it is much more than that. This advertisement aims to target everyone who has a certain loved one that they wish to protect in some way or form. This aim can only be possibly achieved through the appeal of Pathos, which generally almost everybody shares.

            Pathos is the appeal of emotion. MetLife uses this type of appeal to persuade the viewers to buy this life insurance for themselves, for their family members and their loved ones. A lot of emotion is expressed in the commercial. Happiness, sadness, tears, and laughter are shown, all in forms of love, all for a loved one. In the ad's case, it was all for his daughter. Emotions were very apparent. As the daughter compliments her own father, the viewers can see how much fun they have together as a family. Everything seemed perfect. There was joy and laughter all around as long as her father was there. This was the climax. And this is where the "but" is employed.  "Daddy is just great... but he lies." He lies for his daughter and her happiness. In exchange for his daughter's happiness and normal lifestyle, he gave up his. He continuously tries to work enough manual labor in order to barely support himself and his daughter. Whenever he has the money, he would buy his daughter things and try to keep her happy. And most of all, he had tried to keep all of this hidden from his daughter so that she could truly live a normal life that he couldn't. The advertisement stressed the understanding of giving your loved ones what you can't or couldn't give yourself. This is what bought the viewer's attention and sympathy. Pathos was exhibited in such a way, that most people who watch this advertisement, would understand that love is a struggle, especially one between a parent and a child. This exhibition of Pathos convinces us that everything is worth giving up if it is for your child, if it is for a loved one, and it pushes us towards buying this MetLife life insurance from the application of emotion alone. This ad though, does not just embody emotional values, it holds ethical or moral values as well.

            Ethos is the appeal of the ethics or morality. This specific advertisement convinces the viewer with a universal ideal of family ethics and morals. It is practically universal that parents should take care of their children and place them before themselves in any situation. The application of Ethos takes place as the father is paying for his daughter's meals and watches her eat and smiles, but doesn't eat anything himself. This type of appeal targets mostly parents of all nationalities. This moral of taking care of your family members is emphasized and tells the viewers that this is the righteous or just thing to do. The use of Ethos in this advertisement can be compared with Logos since they are very similar in this commercial.

            Logos is the appeal of logical reasoning. Logos is exhibited when the advertisement gives the viewers reason to buy the product that is being advertised. The viewers' reason to buy MetLife's life insurance is based off of the appeal of familial ethics. The reaction MetLife is going for with this ad, is the viewer thinking it is reasonable to buy the product. It is reasonable because he or she feels it is their duty to buy it and that is reasonable enough to convince themselves that they would be better parents if they did. Logos can apply different types of appeal in its own or even have no other appeals at all, but in this case, it had a logical and ethical appeal altogether.

            MetLife is selling life insurance with this heartfelt advertisement and it works perfectly. The commercial is able to influence others through emotion, reason, and morality. MetLife makes life insurance seem less grim and more gentle and bright. It gives the viewers a sense of hope and duty to love, cherish, and to protect. MetLife is definitely successful in reaching their targeted audience and persuading them to buy MetLife life insurance by using the three types of appeals: Pathos, Ethos, and Logos.