A Rhetorical Analysis Of Nike

Novak Djokovic, a famous tennis player, once said, “Tennis players we're always playing in center courts that feel like arenas. And when we get on the court and the crowd cheers your name or salutes you it's like you're a gladiator in the arena. And everyone is cheering - and you're fighting, you're screaming, during your strokes - it feels like you're an animal, fighting for your life” (Brainy Quote). Similarly to the scenario depicted by Djokovic, the commercial begins by showing fans cheering in anticipation of the soccer game. The beginning of the commercial, a wide shot of the Colosseum quickly transitions into a scene of screaming fans reminiscent of old Rome gladiator fights: people burning anything they can get their hands on in the

stadium, lighting it on fire, and then throwing it down to the center of the Colosseum as the two teams walk out. Through Nike’s use of the rhetoric devices and the themes portrayed throughout the commercial, they were able to reach a larger audience to sell their athletic wear products to.
Knowing the audience, Nike, used varying techniques to successfully appeal to the audience’s emotions, or better known as pathos. Throughout the entire commercial, the theme of the story of David versus Goliath is prevalent, and appeals to the audience’s love for seeing an underdog win. The advertisement produced by Nike, depicts the story of David and Goliath through a matchup between a team of small world-renowned soccer players and a large team of strong super humans. The professional soccer players in the beginning faced many challenges due to their opponent’s substantial stature. Although in the beginning of the commercial the professional soccer players faced adversity, they together formed a plan of attack to defeat the large superhuman team by scoring a goal. Similarly to the commercial, Space Jam, a well-known childhood movie encapsulates the theme from the David and Goliath story. In Space Jam, the shorter basketball team, the underdogs, goes against a group of “monsters” who also are known to have immense talent and the best players in the league. Space Jam directly correlates to the Nike commercial through the use of a strong favorable team, and a small underdog team that prevails to defeat the favored team. Nike, by using different techniques, profitably appealed to the audience’s pathos.
Essential to creating and having a convincing advertisement, a company, in this case Nike, possessed ethos also known as credibility due to their success in the athletic clothing industry.

The first step in Nike obtaining ethos, is due to Nike being the largest athletic company in the world, which establishes their credibility through their well-established selling and persuading techniques used to convince others to buy their products. Although they have more competitors than ever in today’s society, they have over twice the brand value of the next leading competitor in athletic-wear sales (Parker). In addition to Nike already being the largest company in the world, Nike continues to grow each and every day. Nike continues to grow by sponsoring some of the most famous soccer players in the world, many of which appear in the commercial. In the commercial, Cristiano Ronaldo, arguably the greatest soccer player to ever live helps Nike to grow as a company, by wearing Nike in the hopes his fans will support Nike along with him. Showing that they are able to sponsor a player of that magnitude shows that Nike’s credibility as a company. Vital to possessing ethos, Nike uses their success as the largest athletic company to persuade the

audience.
Although this commercial shows ethos and pathos, it is not crucial to include logos as a technique in sales commercial. Even though it does not have logos, the other two categories of ethos and pathos are strong enough to support the commercial on their own. Logos is arguably the least important method of the three methods when it comes to sales commercial. Although facts are normally important for a commercial, the leading company does not really need to sway the customer’s opinion with facts when they already have the most customers’ attention. By using famous soccer players and Roman history, Nike successfully drew the audience in making them interested in the product. When making a successful commercial it is more important to think of the message the company is trying to get across, rather than thinking of statistics to throw at the audience. Customers tend to buy Nike clothing not due to the statistics of the clothing, but rather for the spokes personal that the company sponsors. It would be ideal to have all three techniques used in a given commercial, it is not necessary to use logos as a tactic to draw customers in.
Finally, I found that this commercial showed great importance to many people’s lives because most people have some personal ties to sports. To begin, this commercial relates to me because I played soccer in high school, and it was a great passion of mine. Whenever there is something about soccer on the television, it has my full and undivided attention. Also, similar to the ad, in my soccer career we played against a Goliath of a team, when we were just a poor David-like team. In one game in particular, we played a talented team, and we were down for most the game. However, we ended up creating a game plan that proved to be successful, and came back to win in the final minutes of the game ended. More importantly, many people played soccer when they were young, so they can relate to the advertisement. Even though most people do not stick to playing soccer, this commercial can bring people back to their individual memories of playing soccer, before they had to deal with the stress of growing up and everyday life. Lastly, soccer is the most popular sport in the world, so this advertisement has a large audience. Nike successfully made the commercial by using the large pool of fans surrounding soccer.
By Nike’s use of the rhetoric devices throughout the commercial, they victoriously reached a larger audience to sell their athletic products to. First of all, the pathos of the commercial gives many people an emotional reaction by the use of an underdog story in a matchup between two completely different teams. Secondly, the ethos given to Nike by their previous success and continuing growth of the company makes them a reliable source. Lastly, even though the commercial lacks logos, it still was influential through the accurate depiction of the Colosseum. Similar to what Novak Djokovic, a famous tennis player, once stated, sporting events often can be compared to the Roman Gladiator fights as they are full of ups and downs, and oftentimes are very unpredictable when it comes to who will win the given event.