Journal Assignment #1
“VW Unpimp-Drop it like it’s hot”
I choose the Volkswagen advertisement that is trying to sell one of their new model cars. I would say that the intended audience is a younger generation of people, most of the time people anywhere from a junior or senior in high school too people that are finishing up college or even working on their masters. If an age had to be set than I would say the intended audience is about the ages of 16-26. The purpose for this particular audience is because Volkswagen is putting the image that you are only cool if you drive this type of car. Most of the time people in that age group care about being cool. There is also one more type of audience that could be targeted by Volkswagen and that is just males in general because they put a good-looking girl in it, as some sex appeal. That could be any age male but I believe that the main intended audience is young people because of the “cool” factor.
I believe that the ad contains one major fallacy in this advertisement. It comes in the form of a logical fallacy, in that this ad is saying that you are only cool if you have this car. Volkswagen abuses the use of logos in that there are many cool cars out there and this one is by far not the only one. They don’t even give the other car in the ad a name; Volkswagen just calls it a what-you-ma-call-it. That right there is a logical fallacy because it might be true for some people but it is defiantly not completely true, there for it is a gimmick. They show the other car and than just slam the new one on top of the old one and don’t really give the audience a choice.
The main form of Rhetorical Appeal that I think Volkswagen used in their advertisement was pathos. Their main purpose was to try and effect the emotions of these young drivers. When the guy took the F off of the kid’s old car and said you fail than that was defiantly a form of pathos. The logical fallacy kind of ties in with the use of pathos because Volkswagen is saying you are not cool in less you drive their car and that is defiantly effecting your emotions. Volkswagen also used sex appeal because they had a good-looking girl in the advertisement and that is a form of pathos that directly affects males.
I also believe that Volkswagen uses ethos in this advertisement. They try to gain credibility through the intended audience by having the main guy in the clip attempt to talk in a “cool” way. This makes the audience say that this guy thinks like us so maybe we should listen to him and buy this “cool” car. That is ethos because they are trying to appeal to the younger age of car buyers so you have to gain credibility from them. If you talk in a real formal way with a bunch of statistics than you are not going to appeal to them at all. That is how I feel Volkswagen used some forms of Rhetorical Appeals in their advertisement.
2 comments:
I totally agree with you at this ad is targeted towards the younger generation. I never noticed that it could also be targeted towards males, but you are completely correct. The use of that woman in the commercial plays with the emotion of the young male. Yet i would have to say that i don't see the logos is this ad. The only actual fact that they used in this commercial was that it is tuned by German Engineers. I would say that their are more pathos exaggerations than logical fallacies.
Just want to say, good thorough analysis of the Volkswagen commercial. I agree with you about the pathos and logos. However, after looking at the commercial again I think we both missed the ethical appeals presented in the commercial being that the man is German and is seeling a German made car. All in all great analysis.
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