A Rhetorical Analysis Of Pepsi's Controversial Advertising

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Advertisement is one of the biggest industries around. Everywhere we look there is an advertisement that is trying to sell a commodity, experience, emotion, or sentiment. Some try to cater to our want and others to our need. Ultimately, their success hinges on how well they utilize rhetorics to sell us or fall trap to failing fallacies. One of the most controversial advertisements in recent history is Pepsi’s commercial featuring Kendall Jenner, a high profile celebrity and often seen as a popular figure to young adults. In it Jenner, among other less notable people, joins a protest that has come to a halt as a it faces a line of policemen. Jenner then walks up to and hands to a stern looking police officer a can of Pepsi. After the said policeman accepts the crowd of protester share in a moment of cheers and merriment. Unfortunately, the ad was not well received by the public and Pepsi’s intended target audiences. There are a range of problems from less than convincing rhetorical uses of emotion all the way to falling to fallacies such as missing the main points and appealing to authority. …show more content…

What we see happening many times in their ad are individuals, who are frustrated with their situation, finding a sense of comfort and belonging when they stumble upon an activism going on. The assumption here is that they have found a group of like minded people who share the same values that they do. This in turns change their moods and attitudes from frustration to a general sense of happiness in finding belonging. Not only that, there are also several shots of general merriment where people were having fun and enjoying themselves. In addition to promoting progressivism, they also reiterate another sentiment, fun. At the end of the day, they also want people to see that it's a good time when you drink Pepsi and projects this to their audience. This promotes an association with Pepsi and a good

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