A Rhetorical Analysis Of The Colgate Save Water Commercial

The commercial that I chose as my favorite commercial from the night was the Colgate Save Water commercial. The creators of the advertisement used all three of the modes of persuasion: logos, ethos, and pathos to appeal to the target audience. Knowing that over 100 million people would be tuning in to view the Super Bowl game as well as the commercials, the creators knew what appealing approach to take regarding the audience.
The three techniques of persuasion, logos, ethos, and pathos, are the basis that all advertisers use while creating an advertisement. Using logos is Using pathos is primarily to create an emotional response from the audience.
The commercial simply starts off with a male walking over to his bathroom sink, he turns the

faucet on and begins brushing his teeth. During this time, his faucet is still running while he is currently not using it. It shows someone washing an unclean pear or apple, another person what it looks like to be filling up a dog bowl, and then a young girl from Peru, cupping water in her hand from the faucet to drink.
My first thoughts were “Why is Colgate using this time to make a statement/ announcement instead of promoting an existent or new product?” The basis of the commercial is not surrounding the product of toothpaste itself, but the correlation that their product has to water. A big part of the Colgate brand is to conserve water. Many Americans in today’s time are completely unaware of the importance of conserving water. Taking an opportunity where a great number of people would be watching, to portray a more global and social understanding type of positive message, was a clever marketing approach.
By including facts about water into the commercial, Colgate used logos because they used factual data to support their message. By doing this, Colgate gained the trust of the audience which shows ethos. In the commercial, the usage of demonstrating a cause rather than promoting the product speaks volumes to the audience. Statistics show that Americans are far less globally aware than we should be. With that being that, those apart of Generation Y (Millennials) and Generation Z, have significant interest in a “saving the world” mentality. Therefore, the emotional impact that the commercial has on them demonstrates pathos. Pathos is when the audience has empathy for the advertisement because of the way it is shown. The target audience will probably feel guilty for using water unconsciously and seeing what others in different cultures use water for, while many American’s are wasting it by letting it run while we brush our teeth. The message it represents shows how as a society we are causing harm to the environment in all areas of the world. For me, when I brushed my teeth after the Super Bowl I actually caught myself doing the exact thing that the commercials purpose was on. I realized that I was leaving the sink running while brushing my teeth.
The advertisers put a lot of thought into the pathos component because showing how people from other countries use water in their countries compared to how many Americans use it is eye-opening. Many countries, mainly third world countries, are struggling with basic necessities to survive. Lacking clean and safe water, and not having any water at all, is very common in these countries throughout the world and being mindful of that is important. According to (www.dosomething.org), “By 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world's population could be living under water stressed conditions.” Having access to clean water is a limited resource and showing this commercial to remind those that other people might not be as fortunate as we are, only helps to bring awareness.
Overall, the advertisers for Colgate did a good job using the persuading techniques which made the commercial productive by effecting the audience in the ways that they intended to.