In many types of advertising rhetorical arguments are utilized that appeal to the intended audience using many different techniques. Some advertisements may favor strictly audio appeals, which usually constitute some kind of radio advertisement where there can be no visual interaction, while still others favor visual appeals. Both of these can be used effectively but I am going to focus on the visual appeals for the most part.
The Reebok company uses many different rhetorical techniques that are employed in the commercial series that includes the character of, “Terry Tate, Office Linebacker.” Terry Tate is a real life person who has had his name affiliated with the Reebok company and who is a former college football player. In these series of commercials a false job is created which is that of an, “office linebacker” to help the made up company of Felcher and Sons boost productivity in the workplace. The job is mainly concerned with the position of linebacker in football and taking this idea into an office setting. In football the linebacker is a person who plays defense, or tackles people who have the ball in their possession. In the workplace the, “office linebacker” then roams the office building looking for slackers and employees who do not take their work seriously or to its full extent.
In the course of the commercials that Terry Tate and the Reebok company he works for, there is not much dialogue that mentions the name of the company or the products that are intended to be marketed. In place of these dialogue and audio appeals a large variety of visual and implied appeals are used. Reebok is a company that manufactures many kinds of athletic apparel that can be seen throughout the Terry Tate commercials. Tate can frequently be seen sporting the Reebok brand spandex athletic gear and also wearing a necklace with the Reebok company logo easily visible upon it. In most circumstances these alone would not appeal to many people, but through the context of the advertisement, with Tate being a healthy and strong human being with many desirable attributes. This mainly deals with the ethos method of rhetorical appeal where the character of the speaker or the reader is used to for better effect in the area of argumentation. In this case the character of Terry Tate is being built up with his positive attributes emphasized so the audience will be more likely to listen to any message that he may have. Like I said earlier Terry Tate is a very strong person with a very muscular body. Society today dictates that this kind of body, for a man, is desirable. Society determines that men are more likely to be aesthetically pleasing if they have muscular bodies and are strong. Through these dictations men are appealed to Terry Tate’s message because in the eyes of society he is more likely to be successful and perhaps the audience may think that by listening to Tate and emulating his actions they may also be successful. The effect that is being looked for is that the audience can associate the Reebok brand name with being athletic and performance.
Another example of ethos at work in rhetorical appeals is the masculinity that is appealed to in men that is evident through the entire advertisement. Another socially acceptable concept and idea is that of masculinity. Masculinity is basically an unwritten code of how to act and how to think that has become expected to be the norm in mainstream society. One part of this masculinity is the toughness that is expected of men. In the video Tate is injured in a particular segment and his character makes a big deal of, “playing” or doing his job through the pain. This is another chance that is taken to help build his character. But being tough as portrayed in the video Tate plays to social norms which makes him more appealing to the audience as well. The more norms that can be achieved by Tate the more acceptable the character of Terry Tate will be.
The fact that the advertisement takes place in an office building in an urban environment is no accident either. The author of this video uses the pathos effect which plays to emotional appeals found in the audience to help them to identify with the message and achieve the purpose of the advertisement. The office setting is one that a large part of most demographics can relate to. This plays to the emotion of belonging and being able to identify with what is taking place and what is being said by others, which are those that belong to the majority of the middle or working class. But the main use of pathos in the video goes into the portrayal of humor. Humor falls into the category of pathos because it plays to the emotion of the audience. Many humorous elements can be found in the advertisement, such as the ludicrous association of the game of football to that of life and work in an office building. The irony of the brutality of football is apparent in the setting of the office, where such acts of physicality is rarely if ever seen. Also humor can be seen in the way that the video goes blatantly against so many obvious morals. Under no circumstances would we ever resort to violence in modern western society to increase productivity, but in the ad the office workers even embrace the source of their physical pain and torment. And finally the boss of Felcher and Sons gives some dialogue where he condones the use of the out of place, “office linebacker” and even states that he wished that he had more of them.
Another method of argumentation used in the commercial is that of narration. In the video the C.E.O. of the fictional company tells how the office linebacker is used to improve and boost productivity. In the commercial the C.E.O., Ron Felcher says, “I’m a firm proponent of paradigm breaking, outside the box thinking…” and then tells how the Felcher and Sons company’s productivity has gone up forty six percent because of the use of Terry Tate, their office linebacker. Through the narration of Ron Felcher the advertisement again hopes to have the audience associate indirectly the Reebok name with productivity and enhance performance.
Analogy is another method of argumentation utilized by the advertisement. They analogize football and the position of linebacker to the office atmosphere. Incorporating football in the office setting helps a larger demographic associate with the message of the commercial, namely buying Reebok. This is also effective because it shows that the athletic apparel of Reebok is not only useful in sports but in other not so specific situations.
The cause and effect method of argumentation is used to great effect in the advertisement as well. In the commercial the portrayal of the use of the Reebok brand would be the cause, while the effect would be the increased performance and better productivity. In the advertisement it is all about glamorizing the product and making the brand more appealing with the unstated message that if you use this brand you will be better. Also the cause and effect method can be applied to the situation where Tate is displayed as a generally aesthetically pleasing character and the advertisement then uses this method to send the message that if you use this product you will also be socially accepted.
One other argumentation evident in the advertisement is the use of process, which shows how the product can be used. In the context of the commercial this can be seen by the use of Reebok’s athletic apparel by Terry Tate. His action in and throughout the office area gives an example of how the product can be used, although in an unorthodox manner. Tate shows how the product of Reebok’s would be used in the game of football, as opposed to the venue shown in the commercial. This is one of the author’s clever ploys to grab the attention of the audience.
Throughout the Terry Tate Reebok commercial many types of rhetorical techniques are employed. They are used for many different purposes. Specifically in this commercial many visual techniques are used, rather than audio. There is audio in the advertisement but the author doesn’t use the dialogue as in depth as the visual cues evident in the rest of the video. These techniques are used as methods of argumentation, which ultimately are used to try to persuade the audience to purchase the product.
