RA 2: Commercial

Commercials sometimes utilize celebrities to pander to an audience's desire to be more than they are. Wear a shoe and play like a pro. This makeup makes you shine like a star. Eat a burger that is fit for a legend. The bigger the name, the more credible the advertisement. This seems counterintuitive unless you truly understand pop culture. An appeal to ethos among the general public consists of giving them testimonials of the person they have seen the most and grown to trust, not necessarily from the most credible source. Also an appeal to pathos, they have followed that character through the roles and achievements that they have won and now are emotionally invested. Anytime Michael Jordan sells a product the sales go through the roof for a few weeks/months/years afterward. Now, not every person flocks to the store and buys everything that he sponsors, but those people that he panders to see the product as reliable, cool, game enhancing and worth the extra money. Jordan hasn't really played basketball in almost a decade and his shoe is still a best seller. Almost all “any year old” males will spend 40-70 dollars more for a pair of shoes that were assembled by Chinese slave children because of that Air Jordan logo. Now this is a large intro for the commercial I chose, but there is not a lot to the commercial itself. Without background info on marketing and Jordan commercials, the ad seems lethargic and drab and almost depressing, but this commercial was a smart move by Nike; instantly credible because everyone's hero, MJ, testifies about overcoming adversity and which company was there to help him through it. Everyone can relate because they all fail much more than Jordan and in comparison their failures are much worse. Nike sponsors second chances and third and fourth... Not everyone is a star athlete; Nike would have you believe otherwise with the right amount of dedication and sporting equipment. This is precisely what the target audience wants to hear because most already believe that they are the best. Those customers who have reached that age or place in life where they want to give it up just need to hear a semi retired Jordan say that he keeps going after he’s “failed over and over and over and that’s why he succeeds” and instantly they add ten years of consumership to Nike sports products.