This week we touched on the use of visual rhetorics to persuade the audience. Therefore for this week's blog entry, I have chosen a video commercial which persuades the audience rhetorically. Rhetorics was defined as the art of persuasion (Garver, 1994) and rhetorics in advertising is more concerned with style than content. It emphasized on “how to say it” rather than “what to say” (McQuarrie & Philips, 2008).
All persuasions must have an argument. The rhetorical argument in this Malaysian Idol Commercial is that everybody suddenly wants to be a star because of Malaysian Idol. The Malaysian Idol is a reality television show to uncover singing talent in singing talent across all states in Malaysia.
The commercial begins with a Chinese man inside the car. He is then approached by an Indian security guard who started singing the altered version of YMCA song, telling the Chinese man that he is not allowed to park within the premise and must get a visitor pass. When singing, the Indian security guard is accompanied by few other security guards who also sang along. The advertisement ended with a tagline “Suddenly, everyone wants to be a star,” and it is further anchored with the logo Malaysian Idol.
Towards promoting the Malaysian idol talent show, the rhetorical element is the advertisement uses ordinary people. Instead of telling or talking the Chinese man in a conversational manner, the security guard sang to the man. The singing was the rhetorical style used in the delivery of the message. The advertisement is attempting to portray the impact or 'influence' of Malaysian Idol show to the extent that singing replaces daily conversation. It also employs the rhetorical strategy called 'enthymeme” with missing premise and conclusion (Rose, 2000). Although the ad is intended to promote the show Malaysian Idol, it did not instruct the audience directly to watch the show. Instead, it it demonstrates the effect and impact of the show towards people's daily lives which is the rhetorical style or device utilized to persuade the viewers. In our everyday lives, we do not sing to communicate. But the security guard conveyed or relayed the message by singing. This illustrates how people are catching the Malaysian Idol fever because everybody started singing. It also applies humour as a rhetorical technique to draw attention from the viewers.
Therefore rhetorics are frequently used in advertising, which can also produce incongruity to draw audience attention.
References
Garver, E. (1994). Artistotle's rhetoric: An art of character. USA:University of Chicago Press.
McQuarrie, E. F. & Philips, B. J. (2008). Go figure! New directions in advertising rhetoric. USA, M.E. Sharpe. Inc.
Rose, J. W. (2000). Making 'pictures in our heads':Government advertising in Canada. USA:Greenwood Publishing Group.
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