Rhetorical Analysis Budweiser

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This Budweiser advertisement is all about establishing ethos with the viewer. It may seem out of character for a company whose only purpose is to make and sell alcohol to produce an advertisement that is so explicitly against heavy drinking, nevertheless the overall effect of the video is that viewers come away feeling that Budweiser has their best interests at heart, so if they were to choose to drink, Budweiser would be a wiser choice. Budweiser accomplishes this exceedingly well through the instinctive empathy viewers feel as a response to the bond between the dog and the man, but every facet of the ad, from the background music to the coloring, plays an important role in establishing Budweiser as an morally righteous company, all the …show more content…

An overwhelming number of American’s grow up owning dogs, and even those of us that don’t have seen so many movies featuring loving dogs that the opening shot of a puppy resting in his owner’s arms fills us with joy. The dog is the star of this commercial, and throughout this commercial we watch him grow, always with his owner by his side. The owner himself doesn’t play a big role. We see the dog’s face before his, and even as the commercial progresses he’s shown generally either in wide shots interacting with the dog, or in short close ups of his hands and face. The only characteristic you could assign him is the one Budweiser intends; loving. This is not a bad thing per say, however the result is that the audience empathizes with the man’s supposed death because of the emotional significance it has for the dog, not out of fondness for the man. This makes it very easy for the majority of Americans, being dog-loving people, to apply this scene to their own lives. In reality, it is very unlikely that a one minute video vaguely condoning drunk driving will convince anyone to turn their lives around or seriously change their actions. What is does accomplish is leaving viewers with a warm happy feeling, as they see the dog reunited with his owner. They are left reassured that nothing terrible has happened, remembering this ad, and Budweiser,

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