Adidas has always embraced the slogan of “Impossible is Nothing.” In this commercial, David Beckham communicates his story to the audience. His story is complete with all pentadic elements, which helps to emphasize the main and dominant aspect of this pentad, the purpose.
The act of this story is David Beckham receiving a red card in an important World Cup match for England. After the red card he becomes hated in England, but redeems himself by getting England back into the world cup by scoring the deciding goal against Greece. The agent of the story is simply David Beckham. The agency of the story includes the teammates of David Beckham, the shoes and uniform Beckham wears, and even the ball contribute to the act. The scene of the story occurs in David Beckham’s mind. The scene jumps from memory to memory, to emphasize the purpose.
The purpose of this commercial is the most dominant aspect, as it over takes all of the other element The act establishes the purpose by demonstrating a story of overcoming the odds. David Beckham was hated by all of his own country, but he stuck with it, and earned back the respect of his countrymen. This purpose of overcoming the odds, ties right back into the slogan of “impossible is nothing.” This purpose builds ethical appeal with Adidas which makes Adidas look like a “righteous” and “inspiring” company.
You may have achieved success. You may have achieved success on success. But have you achieved success, on success, on success? This is a question that the “KobeSystems” ad campaign asks quite frequently. This marketing venture uses Kobe Bryant of the L.A. Lakers and other celebrities to provide a memorable and amusing experience for the viewers. Although the product for sale is only a shoe, the “KobeSytems” emphasizes and suggests the shoe does much more than provide a stylish dressing for your foot. There are several ads for this campaign, but I wanted to focus on Aziz Ansari’s personal testimony to the Kobe System. In this mini-commercial Ansari uses fantasy and imagination to capture the interest of the consumer. Fantasy themes broken down into areas such as character themes, action themes, and setting themes are all clearly used to help mold the rhetorical vision. This commercial establishes fantasy themes of success, success for the successful, and the incredible and spectacular.
The setting of the commercial includes Ansari sitting in a director’s chair, but the most important setting of commercial, and the root of the fantastical imagination, is a stand-up comedy show described in the testimonial. It is a briefly described setting, but one that is easily pictured by the audience. The characters themes of the story include Kobe Bryant himself, Aziz Ansari, and a heckler in the audience of the comedy show. The viewer can see Kobe as the protagonist, Ansari as a neutral, and the heckler as the antagonist. The action themes of this commercial are encompassed by the events in the Ansari’s story. In this story, Ansari describes a comedy show where Kobe Bryant has taken his spot to perform. Ansari describes being in awe of Kobe’s hilarity, and when a heckler challenges Kobe, Kobe does something Ansari “has never seen before.” The scene is best narrated by Ansari in the commercial but a brief overview would include Kobe flying across the room and smacking the heckler in the head with the microphone, landing on the table, jumping backwards, grabbing an onion ring and tossing it into his mouth, while landing on the stage and saying, “and that’s why I don’t let my dog sleep in the house anymore.” These themes definitely lead to a humorous fantasy type, as Aziz sets the stage at a comedy show using an informal and laugh inducing tone.
In terms of rhetorical vision, a few themes seem to combine here. For example, the two major themes of success and the incredible create a rhetorical vision of viewing the shoe as something greater than it is. By using a star like Aziz Ansari, they are channelling both the popularity of Ansari and Kobe Bryant. The incredible story that Ansari transforms Bryant into, is the action theme that allows the viewer to visualize the event. Ansari’s story, with the setting and characters he creates, is basically the link to the theme of the incredible and spectacular. The commercial itself, is littered with the other theme of success, and “success for the successful.” There is a banner right behind Ansari, and the camera angle switches periodically to words written on the wall: success, success, and more success. By combining to themes together, the Nike marketing team is giving the audience a funny fantastical escape from their everyday lives. This commercial leaves the viewer with the feeling that the shoe makes the successful even more successful, making even the average person more than meets the eye. But what if you’re really successful? In the words of Kobe Bryant “You’re welcome.”
Have you ever written a story that involves yourself and personal experiences, but by the end of it, the entire story revolves around you? Chances are you were experimenting with “Gonzo Journalism,” a genre that was invented by Hunter S. Thompson. “Gonzo Journalism,” favours a stylistic approach rather than fact or information. It uses personal experiences and emotion to describe and explain the events occurring in the story, which allows for an uncorrupted story straight from the author’s mind. It strives for a more gritty personable approach, rather than a formal news report. “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” either the book or the movie, are great examples of this genre of “Gonzo Journalism.” Experiences and perceptions come through, and the “truth” is something that is interpreted subjectively by the audience. Hunter S Thompson said it best himself, “If I’d written the truth I knew for the past ten years, about 600 people—including me—would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today. Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism.”
“Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” is a perfect example of “Gonzo Journalism,” for a few reasons. It involves a first person point of view of personal experiences and emotions that occur throughout the story. It is more focused on a stylistic, raw, gritty, and personable approach, rather than telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Another key element of gonzo journalism Is the narrator becoming the centre of the story, after he was otherwise just semi involved. We see this happen when, Duke is driving to Vegas, and at this point he is only involved ready to report on the motorcycle race. By the middle of the movie, Duke Is engulfed in his drug trips and forgets completely about the race and pursues his own endeavors of chasing the “American dream.” I chose this piece to exemplify Gonzo Journalism because this is the first instance of it, and the genre really spawned from this book and movie. “FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS.”
“300,” is a graphic-novel by Frank Miller, which was adapted to fit the big screen and be resold as a motion picture by director Zach Snyder. Throughout this retelling of the famous battle of Thermopylae that occurred during the Peloponnesian wars, many inspiring speeches are delivered by the cast. In the final scene of the movie, the character “Dilios” inspires a group of soldiers and delivers the most effective speech in terms of the Neo-Aristotelian perspective.
The Invention of the speech was very impacting to the audience of soldiers. Dilios utilizes logos by mentioning the battle that occurred with Leonidas and 300 Spartans, in which they held a Persian army of immense proportions at bay allowing for Greek re-enforcement to assemble. He contrasts the 300 person army’s effort to the 10,000 person Spartan army that now stands before him. He uses logic to demonstrate to the soldiers that logically they can win because if 300 Spartans can hold off a Persian army, then 10,000 Spartans plus 30,000 Greeks should do the job. Dilios also incorporates pathos into his speech, by presenting Leonidas’ death and struggle as a sacrifice to the greater good of Greece. By doing this Dilios, persuades the army into a feeling of unity and honour. He inspires them to feel passionate about Greece as a country and to fight and defend the honour of Greece and Leonidas.
The organization of the speech also lends persuasive power to the rhetor. Dilios begins with the inspirational story of a lost king and concludes by incorporating all the soldiers and allowing them to all play a part in the ending of the story. The organization is very persuasive in terms of keeping attention and overall effectiveness.
The style of the speech seems to be the use of diction and emphasis on certain words. When talking about King Leonidas, Dilios surrounds his name with words like “Victory,” “bold”, and “brave.” He does this to show the audience that the king they are fighting for is a worthy use or sacrifice of their own lives, which also lends credence to the ethos of the argument.
Dilios spoke straight from the top of his head; therefore this contributes to the memory as the speech as it is definitely more effective than if he was reading off cue-cards.
The delivery of the speech was very passionate and loud. It spoke to the souls of the soldiers, and inspired them to fight for what is good and for freedom. Without a good delivery, this speech could launch soldiers into a battle unmotivated, which is why this speech was especially strong in delivery. As it accomplished it’s immediate goal of inspiration.
Overall this speech by DIlios in the movie “300,” accomplishes the main ideas of Neo-Aristotelian rhetoric. It is effective in its use of pathos, and logos as well in the use of the 4 other canons. It is especially important to note the use of delivery in this speech. The orator communicates directly to each of the soldier’s Greek heritage and pounds an inspirational message into their heads. The effectiveness of the speech can be noted by the response of the soldiers. Although this is a movie, one can see that a speech in a real life context could easily generate the same amount of emotional response.
Pop Studies and Rhetoric 