visual rhetoric analysis of a 2018 super bowl ad -exploring visual arguments

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Rhetoric Analysis of a 2018 Super Bowl Ad
Mountain Dew Ice vs. Doritos Blaze Advert

The Mountain Dew Ice vs. Doritos Blaze is a sixty seconds super bowl commercial advert featuring two trademark products of PepsiCo: Mountain Dew Ice and Doritos Blaze. In this advert, the multinational snack, food, and beverage Company, PepsiCo, purposes to spotlight two of its product innovations: Dorito Blaze; which is a hot spicy type of classic chips, and Mountain Dew Ice, which is a lemon-lime beverage. The advert targets to reach out for the new and current consumers of Dorito and Mountain Dew, who are largely millennial and Generation Z, and inform them about the existence of freshly produced brands of the two products, and why they should go for them. The advert employs a humorous tone coupled with rhetorical appeals, visual features, sound effects, and music to call the attention its audience.
Summary
In summary, the commercial debuts a star-studded combined advertisement for Mountain Dew Ice and Doritos Blaze. At the onset, ‘Game of Thrones’ Peter Dinklage and Hollywood’s Morgan Freeman face-off in a hot rap rendition. While Morgan Freeman and Missy Elliot represent Mountain Dew Ice, Busta Rhymes and Peter Dinklage are vouching for Doritos Blaze. Missy and Busta act as the duet’s “coaches.” However, as the intensity grows in the rap battle, Missy and Busta make cameo appearances to endure their support. Everything goes throughout the ad, enabling PepsiCo to pass its message about the two products to the target audience in style.

Rhetorical Analysis
The advert employs several techniques to call the attention of the audience. The first technique, which is also the most outstanding feature, is the integration of two products, each represented by an admired celebrity, who also happens to be entertaining the audience the rap contest and humor. Both the Game of Throne’s Dinklage and Hollywood’s Freeman are iconic celebrities (McDonough, n.d.). Their association with a particular product, ultimately, leads to a huge customer following. Undoubtedly, their involvement makes the advert even more striking to the audience. Further, it is true that every Tom, Dick, and Harry loves a hot rap battle, particularly, between two iconic superstars. Therefore, the stylistic lip-synching battle between Dinklage and Freeman makes the commercial super bowl advert stand apart from the pack, and every audience will be looking up to watch and listen to its content. Also, the fact that the two venerated actors make guest appearances together with their newbie colleagues, acting as rap battle coaches, auger well with the audience, exciting them even further. Therefore, getting the audience’s attention is not a problem.
Another critical feature of this commercial is attractiveness of visual element coupled with background music and key information throughout the ad. The advertiser’s true aim here is to offer a contextual preview of the advert in advance. He accomplishes this by integrating soft background music along with consistent video play outs that not only create a hilarious atmosphere but also adds to the audience’s ability to understand the speaker’s message.
The Ad creator is very selective on the types of images to include every time something is mentioned in the advert. For instance, at the onset, where Drinklage emerges carrying Doritos Blaze, the creator escorts Drinklage with flakes of fire to symbolize the brand of Dorito for which Drinklage appears (PepsiCo min: 0:00-0:23). This incandescence creates a significant impression in the mind of the audience. The audience will immediately get the hint of what the commercial is about. The same visual formation also happens when Freeman emerges with holding a bottle of an Ice-cold Mountain Dew. The entire vicinity becomes cold and fraught with ice pellets. This visual impression also helps the creator of the advert to convey to the audience the differentiating characteristics of the Mountain Dew Ice (soda). The inclusion of the picture of a lemon below the bottle of the Mountain Dew Ice also plays positively in informing the target audience about the content of the new brand. See the pictures below:

The advert also integrates different rhetorical appeals to get the consideration of the target audience. The three rhetorical appeals employed in this super bowl commercial include a logic appeal, pathetic appeal, and ethical appeal. According to Faigley and Selzer logos border the logic and reasons why the audience should consider the advertiser’s position or brand (83). Ethos is an appeal to ethics and credibility of the advert. Pathos, on the other hands, is an appeal to the audience’s emotion.
By applying logical appeals, the speaker in the advert argues and presents his key message the target audience. He explains why each brand in the advert is worth the audience’s attention. For instance, at the end of Dinklage’s rendition, vouching for Doritos Blaze, the promoter states, “Doritos Blaze, a brand new flavor that brings the heat” (PepsiCo 0:28).Certainly, this is an appeal to logic, and with it, the advertiser aims to capture the audience’s interest by creating an impression that the new brand, Doritos Blaze, would provide the missing link; heat. Therefore, this statement adds positively to the audience’s list of expectations at any time they buy the product. Also, at the end of Freeman performance, presenting the Mountain Dew Ice, the promoter says, “New Mountain Dew Ice, a clear, refreshing Lemon Mountain Dew” (PepsiCo 0:53).Through this appeal, the advert explains to the audience why they should make a compelling decision to acquire the new brand of Mountain Dew Ice.
The advert appeals to its credibility by applying a rhetorical strategy called ethos. The ethical appeal is, particularly, evident when the promoter decides to associate the products with some of the worldly known characters, such as Freeman and Dinklage. These characters indicate to the audience the two products are of topnotch quality and indeed, this works well in convincing and gaining the approval of the target audience. See the picture below:

The speaker also uses pathetic appeals to invoke the audience’s emotion and gain their acceptance plus approval for the information or ideas expressed in the commercial. For instance, towards, the end of the commercial, the cameo representing the new Doritos Blaze says, “I had three people trying to eat me today…Anyway, sometimes I wish I were human” (min55). Through statement plus the accompanying video, the advert implores the audience to consider the new brand of Doritos by appealing to their emotions
Further, given the seriousness of the matter in the text, the advert largely adopts a combination of two tones. First, it employs a solemn tone to try and persuade potential consumers to take the new brands seriously. Second, the advert integrates a humorous tone to help in delivering the message to audience entertainingly. The cameo appearances of Busta and Missy towards the end of the advert is a clear instance of humor. Busta, representing Doritos Blaze, sees humans walking along the streets, and longs to be a human as well. He immediately changes into a human after picking a lucky penny and starts begging people to eat him.
Effectiveness
All techniques applied in this advert work effectively in delivering the message to the target audience. For instance, an observation by Peter and Jerry indicates that consumers always purchase and devour Dew and Doritos together (43). Therefore, the strategy of having them advertised together in one Super Bowl commercial televised nationally makes them stand taller in the market than other brands. PepsiCo is, therefore, likely to have an effective shot at the target consumers through this unorthodox technique. The adoption of a humorous tone in conjunction with pathetic, logic, and ethical appeals also work effectively toward calling the audience’s attention
In a nutshell, the super bowl commercial, Mountain Dew Ice vs. Doritos Blaze, is a one of a kind advert, employing all strategies and techniques necessary to call for the audience’s attention. All the three rhetorical appeals (logos, ethos, and pathos) plus other techniques are integrated effectively throughout the Ad to make it attractive. The only imminent challenge is that the advert may run the possibility of one brand overriding the other, leading to a situation where the message concerning one of the new product fails to reach the target audience. However, since this is a strategy on its way, its effect is trivial to the overall impact of the Ad. The two products are compatible consumer targets.

Work Cited
Faigley, Lester, and Jack Selzer. Good reasons: Researching and writing effective arguments. Pearson Higher Ed, 2014.
Mcdonagh, Ross. “A song of ice and fire! Peter Dinklage and Morgan Freeman face-Off in epic GOT lip sync battle for joint Doritos / Mountain Dew Super Bowl ad.” Daily Mail Online, Associated Newspapers, 31 Jan. 2018, www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-5336921/Peter-Dinklage-Morgan-Freeman-lip-sync-battle.html.
PepsiCo, director. “Doritos Blaze vs. Mountain Dew Ice.” Super Bowl Commercial with Peter Dinklage and Morgan Freeman, Youtube, 30 Jan. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eKYR_iL5eU&pbjreload=10.
Peter, JP, and Jerry C. Olson. Consumer Behavior & Marketing Strategy. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2010. Print