GoDaddy.com: A Nightmare for Dogs and Rhetoric Alike
Try logging onto Facebook or watching TV without seeing a video relating to a dog. Whether it be a sad video about a shelter dogs or a funny video of a dog beggin’ for a treat, people tend to have strong feelings for dogs because dogs are for the most part universally loved. With approximately 44% of all households in the US owning a dog as a pet (1) it’s no wonder why the commercial at the 2016 Super Bowl for GoDaddy.com was under intense scrutiny. Instead of being a success for GoDaddy.com to promote their service, their commercial focuses on an attempt to use humor to glorify puppy mills.
The pathos of the commercial can be broken down from the beginning. The ad begins on what appears
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to be a farm road. A cute Golden Retriever puppy riding in the back of a truck until a bump in the road sends puppy flying out. The playing of sad music while the dog makes its long journey through fields, over railroad tracks, over a bridge, and through a rain storm to get back home plays on the senses of the audience. This initially creates the viewer to feel sympathy towards the dog on its journey. The way GoDaddy.com begins the commercial, they do so in a way that appeals to the audience’s sense of emotion. They watch as this puppy fights its way to get home and feel sympathy for both the lost dog on his hard journey home. When the dog finally makes his way home and is met by its owner the tone of the ad changes. From a slow sad song to the owner rejoicing over the return of the animal, the audience has a change in emotions as to celebrate the union. Instead GoDaddy.com uses the woman’s rejoicing to actually be towards being able to sell the dog on the website she creates using the service GoDaddy.com provides vs showing happiness for the return of her missing dog. This is where the audience feels negatively towards the owner and creates a negate ethos. The values shown by the owner in the commercial are values that are not agreed upon by society. The commercials tone changes from the beginning of the commercial to when the lost dog is reunited with its owners.
From this point, the ad becomes morally and ethically questionable to the audience. The owner scoops the puppy up in her arms rejoicing because she could now sell the dog by using GoDaddy.com. The tone of the owner after she states the sale of the dog is portrayed as cruel and uncaring as she exclaims “Ship ‘em out!” as the van door slams and the dogs gets driven away. This is what has led to the controversy of the ad. Puppy mills are generally known to be a large-scale breeding operations where the profit of the animals is put before their well-being. (2) The way that GoDaddy.com portrayed the owner of the dog to act unloving to the future of the dog gives the audiences reason to interpret the commercial to be glorifying puppy mills. As most of society would that was reunited with a lost pet left the audience to assume her sense of character was harsh and uncaring towards the dog’s future wellbeing. GoDaddy.com has been in trouble for poor subject matter before. They are known for using ill and lewd humor in their commercials. Prior commercials would use women in little clothes to promote their services of a website. Because of the rhetoric they continue to use, they have created negative ethos for their
company. The logic behind this commercial is far from understandable to most. Common logic would state that an owner that loses a pet would be happy to have it find its way home. The reaction earlier stated of the owner in the video instead wanting to sell the dog goes against what viewers feel as what should be true. They attempt to use humor to and a play on a different commercial as a clever way to attempt to justify the satire they have created. There was a commercial in the Super Bowl 2015 (Budweiser “Lost Dog”) about a lost dog that goes on a journey to return home, much like GoDaddy.com commercial that ended the complete opposite. It was the type of commercial that tugged on the heartstrings of the audience and made them feel positively towards the product it promoted, Budweiser, even though it had nothing to do with the actual product. This is how the commercial for GoDaddy.com was intended to be seen as but due to their poor rhetoric of the ending of the ad, it did the opposite. Because of the unreliability GoDaddy.com created on the audiences’ emotions, this causes negative logic to the commercial. The rhetoric that surrounded this tasteless ad about an issue resulted in GoDaddy.com pulled the commercial from airing. Because of this the company definitely lost potential business. The attempt to use humor on a subject that isn’t funny to increase their sales ended up backfiring for the company. For these reasons they failed at creating a commercial to promote the service their website provides to the audience watching the Super Bowl.
The very first trigger that is in the commercial is in the first eight seconds. In the beginning the woman is with her old dog in a vets’ office. The woman is stoking her dog while looking somber. By deductive reasoning one can understand that this means the dog will be euthanized soon. The impending death of this woman’s beloved dog appeals to one’s pathos. People will be able to feel sympathy and or empathy with what this woman is going through by putting her dog down. Depending on if someone has been in this woman’s shoes before and understands the pain she is going through, will determine if one feels empathy, sympathy, or both.
Almost every commercial uses Pathos, an appeal to emotions, to convince the viewer that their product is the best choice for them. The use of Pathos enables the persuader to reach out to the audience in a subconscious or even unconscious level. Emotion creates a bond with the viewer and the advertiser. Liberty Mutual commercials convince us that they provide the best coverage and benefits, such as 24 hour road side assistance and easy repair estimates. In particular, their commercials stand out as as one who uses humor and fear, and then provides reassurance to coax us to chose their insurance over others.
The first appeal is shown by using logos to give the viewers reasoning to give some donations to animals that are in need of a home. Logos is an appeal to an audience basic on logic or reason. During the opening scenes of the commercial, words flash on and off the screen in between the videos and pictures of abused animals. The first part of the commercial “Every single hour in BC an animal is violently abused” (Sarah McLachlan SPCA, n.d.). This commercial had Sarah McLachlan, a famous singer; she was a supporter for this organization. This
The Lincoln Motor Company commercial applies two methods: Ethos and Pathos. Ethos starts the commercial when Matthew Mcconaughey is introduced as the spokesperson by speaking and driving in a Lincoln car. Pathos is apparent when Mcconaughey starts his convoluted monologue, and continues his speech in the darkness of a car. The length of the advertisement contributes to Pathos as well, forcing you to
As the ad begins it shows a beautiful farm with stables and pastures. Then it goes to the farmer looked through a barred window wearing a Budweiser hat. Then you see what he is looking at, a baby foal sitting in the hay after being born. The foal is slightly skittish when the farmer approaches him. You can see the trust start to form as the foal allows the farmer to hold and pet him as he is bottle fed. You can see the bond start to build. It goes ahead in time and the foal has ground and lets the farmer walk him around,
This advertisement features Pathos, because the little boy in the advertisement will probably make people feel guilty, because they spend a lot of money on unnecessary things and waste it, but this child says “Don’t I deserve a happy life?”, and this will probably make people from our society want to spend money to support this cause. This advertisement also features patriotism, because it suggests that purchasing this product will show the love, and support you have towards your country. This company makes people from America want to support this cause. It says in the advertisement,” Help stop child poverty in America”. This advertisement also features Transfer andWeasel Words because it uses positive words, and positive images to suggest that the product being sold is also positive.
These commercials make the audience feel fear, love, guilt, or joy about the situation being shown. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals or ASPCA for short shows commercials to get donations that will help prevent animal cruelty and rescue animals all across the country. I have not seen this commercial on any of the apps on my phone however this is a commercial that I see often on regular television. The target audience of these commercials is animal lovers; it could be a child or an adult. The use of Pathos in the promotion of joining the ASPCA or giving a one-time donation uses animals that look sad, hurt, homeless, abused or scared needing help. It is very effective as it makes the intended audience either want to donate to help the animals or to rescue one through adoption to give it a better life. The type of music played goes along with the feeling of sadness and helplessness that the animals are feeling and makes the audiences feel sad as well. These commercials also either use the voice of a celebrity or show the celebrity holding a dog or cat while giving information about how to help the animals. The audience is shown abused, beaten, or neglected animals and asked for donations to help give medical care, food, shelter, and love to them. The commercial is effective as it pulls at the emotions of animal lovers
The sad background music immediately sets the tone and the speaker’s soft, mild voice only furthers the auditory strategies used throughout this commercial. This advertisement also evokes emotion through visual senses; for example, the images are very realistic and sometimes graphic. The combination of visual and auditory appeals creates an emotional advertisement that is hard to forget about. Sarah McLachlan, the speaker in the advertisement, said herself: “I have to say it was brutal doing those ads…I can’t watch them-it kills me” (Marquina). She is not alone in feeling this way; many viewers find the advertisement to be too heart-wrenching. Even if the commercial overwhelms these viewers, it still is successful in evoking their sympathy and lingering in their
Advertisements are one of many things that Americans cannot get away from. Every American sees an average of 3,000 advertisements a day; whether it’s on the television, radio, while surfing the internet, or while driving around town. Advertisements try to get consumers to buy their products by getting their attention. Most advertisements don’t have anything to do with the product itself. Every company has a different way of getting the public’s attention, but every advertisement has the same goal - to sell the product. Every advertisement tries to appeal to the audience by using ethos, pathos, and logos, while also focusing on who their audience is and the purpose of the ad. An example of this is a Charmin commercial where there is a bear who gets excited when he gets to use the toilet paper because it is so soft.
Then the viewer understands that this advertisement is about marijuana. In this advertisement, Pathos, which is used for emotional appeal, is embedded efficiently. Also, it is the best choice for this anti-drug ad and more suitable than ethos or logos because appealing to a person’s character or logic does not work so much for the marijuana addicts. That is why this image successfully persuades people to disregard the risks of marijuana. First, the ad tells the story of an accident that was caused by a person who smoked weed.
Throughout the entire commercial, pathos is executed to have a lasting effect on the audience. As shown, the young Olmypians in this video undergo many hardships such as: being startled in
The video describes how our society may not even care about the product being advertised, but we still read the billboard or watch the commercial. Also mentioned was the use of colors in a commercial, the marketing effects in politics, and even market research obtained by studying different cults. Frontline takes an in-depth look at the multibillion-dollar “persuasion industries” of advertising and how this rhetoric affects everyone. So whether this is in the form of a television commercial or a billboard, pathos, logos, and ethos can be found in all advertisements.
The reason behind my thinking of the ad with the victim as the main point is that the image is right in your face the second that you see the ad. You see a person missing half of their face
Advertisements over the years have become a major part of modern day society and now, whether it be for the ShamWow or for a Pillow Pet, it is nearly impossible to turn on the television and not see a single “as seen on T.V.” advertisement. The people who create these advertisements use certain strategies to coerce their audience into buying the advertised product, and while many people fall for these tricks, others recognize them and are not so easily fooled. The Onion, a publication devoted to humor and satire, published a press release that contained a myriad of different satirical and linguistic strategies to mock how products are marketed to consumers.
Abuse towards animals is recognized by many in the commercials shown on television, including the Sarah McLaughlin song and the pictures of animals starved and beaten. The commercials are shown quite regularly and give viewers a small look into the world of animal cruelty. What the commercials do not show, however, are the countless cases of people getting away with violence, as well as the hundreds of thousands of animals who did not live to make the commercials. Television, radio, and internet ads often depict and portray the lives of animals living in shelters, and ask the public to donate money each month for the cause. Without a doubt, this is the extent of what many people can say their experience with animal cruelty consists of: pictures and short video clips of half-dead dogs and cats left to die in over-crowded housing.