Furguson 1

Haley Furguson
Professor Olivia Rines
UWRT 1101-02
4 February 2015
Commercials
In the world today, there is a high impact of multimedia on society. People are constantly
being surrounded by television, radio and videos. This technology allows not only individuals to
communicate, but businesses and companies. The communication of businesses through videos
and/or sound clips is called commercials.
Typically, the purpose of every commercial is to persuade and inform. There are many
reasons why a company or organization would want to persuade viewers. When watching
television, movies, scrolling through the internet or listening to the radio, commercials can come
on at any time. These 30-60 seconds of video or sound clips will include a message that involves
the company logo and or name, something that attracts attention and also an emotional appeal.
Nonprofit organizations may use commercials to inform viewers, like animal shelters that may
show pictures of lost or abused animals; this appeal to emotion may push the audience to want to
help by donation or even an adoption. This is just one example of many that exemplifies the
different purposes to commercials.
Most people are aware of all commercials today. As Linda Alwitt says, Today's
television audiences are sophisticated viewers. They know what to expect from television
programs and commercials because a lifetime of viewing has made them familiar with a variety
of television formats, content, and film techniques (Alwitt 35). This familiarity underlines the
definition of genre. When commercials have the same format or similar formats, it is the
repetition of a certain idea or genre. Alwitt says that since consumers and viewers have become

Comment [ag1]: This paragraph started

talking about persuation and information,
then went to have an example of emotion. Is
there a better way to get to the end of the
paragraph with bringing all of that together?
It just flows awkwardly.
Later during your examples of commercials
you showed two ways of delivering
commercials, how many ways are
commercials delivered? (radio, tv, etc)

Furguson 2

so familiar with commercials and its contents, it has become harder to surprise and entertain
audiences (Alwitt 35). Since it has become harder to entertain, the need to analyze different
aspects of commercials has become more important.
There are several discourse modes in the genre of Commercials, although some depend
on the type of commercial. The discourse modes involved with commercials are description,
information and argument. When description is involved with commercials, there are usually
descriptions of products and or messages involved with the organization of the commercial. The
description may be about a food product, which may appeal to hunger, describing the food that is
displayed. All descriptions include the product that is being sold and is a biased description
because it is from the companys perspective, building the product up to be something amazing,
and increasing the amount of product purchased. Information is involved with commercials
because companies are supplying information about different products or ideas. An idea that is
informed could be one ranging from information about a certain medicine product and the side
effects of the product to information about a simple clothing piece. Information is the main
discourse mode of commercials because their main purpose involves communicating information
locally, nationally and globally. The last discourse mode, argument, relates to only a few
commercials. An example of a commercial using argument would be a campaign commercial
arguing why a candidate of a campaign should be nominated. Arguments generally are biased
just like descriptions in commercials are.
The purpose of commercials being persuasion is accomplished by convincing viewers a
product is something that is worth purchasing. A main way a product is convincing is through
emotion. When someone is connected to a piece of entertainment it is because they connected
through emotion. The consumption experience includes major emotional components that might

Comment [ag2]: There are a lot of examples

here. It reads really difficultly. Is there any
way you could break it up a little, change the
flow a bit to help this?

Furguson 3

be summarized colloquially under the heading "fantasies, feelings, and fun" {Holbrook &
Hirschman, 1982). Research cannot guide advertising strategy effectively unless it considers how
the brand or product fits into the emotion-laden experience of consumption (Holbrook &
OShaughnessy 46). This supports the claim that emotion does influence the purchasing and
consuming of products shown in television advertising. When a commercial becomes successful
and the purpose of the product is accomplished the rate of consumption will increase greatly.
Purpose is shaped by the core features of a genre. The core features of commercials
include the emotional appeal, something that makes the commercial memorable or relatable, a
company name or logo and also the main feature, the product. Emotional appeal highly links to
the commercial being memorable and relatable. When a commercial is memorable, they are
usually funny, annoying, sad, and the list goes on. A commercial becomes memorable
when a person talks or communicates about the commercial. Having people talk about a
commercial means there is talk about the product which ultimately means the product is a
success. The product is the main focus in the commercial, everything about the product is
highlighted. Whether the product is being held by a supermodel, with an audience of mainly
men; men will be looking at the product because they are looking at the supermodel holding it.
The product then links to the company name and logo, who are the sellers. If the company ends
up being the talk of the commercial, they then have an array of products that may be purchased.
Eventually, persuading people to buy a product and achieving the ultimate goal of the
advertisement.
In the commercial Terry Tate, Office Linebacker, Terry Tate, a famous lineman for the
NFL becomes a linebacker of an office for the company Reebok. Throughout the commercial,
Terry Tate is constantly tackling office workers to increase work ethic and sales. This slapstick

Comment [ag3]: I like the way you used the

quotes, good choices.

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humor and the use of a famous football player make the commercial memorable. The intended
audience is those, usually men who wear athletic shoes. Being aired during the Super Bowl, the
intended audience is about the same as the actual audience, because a majority of the people
viewing the Super Bowl is men interested in sports. The bias in this commercial is that an office
linebacker will increase success of business in an office workplace.
In another commercial called the Jogger, made by Nike, an out of shape adolescent boy
is successfully running to find his greatness. This appeals to emotion by motivating people to
Find Your Greatness, which makes people feel like they are meant to be great. The intended
audience are those who are either out of shape or self-conscious about their body image and
pursue to start working out. This commercial is mainly played on online ads when scrolling
through websites, so some of the actual audience is the intended audience because a lot of people
who are surfing through the internet are more sedentary. The bias in this commercial is that if
people buy Nike shoes, they will find greatness and begin to work out.
`

The last commercial, Kit Kat TV Commercial made by Kit Kat, employees in an office

are eating Kit Kat bars to the popular song by Kit Kat, Give Me a Break. This commercial
becomes memorable by playing a catchy song that will get stuck in viewers heads. The intended
audience is both those who work in an office and those who are hungry. Some of the actual
audience is the intended audience because the commercial is played on general television and
some people of the intended audience may be viewing it. The bias in this commercial is that Kit
Kats are great tasting and will create a great break experience.
Commercials will always include the same aspects. Although products may change, the
link to emotion and psychological features persuading people will probably never change. It is
possible that commercials may end up in different forms but the genre itself will hardly evolve.

Comment [ag4]: Add something here about

persuasion if you can. Just to have that final
tid bit to tie it into your opening paragraphs.

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Commercials are ideal when it comes to increasing the consumption of a product. Productivity
will always exist and people will always be buying, selling and making items. Without
commercials, companies would not have the convenience of informing and persuading people to
buy their product. There should be more of a look on the emotional aspect of commercials and
understanding the effects emotion has on the influencing of purchasing an item. I have learned
that there is more to a genre than what it seems. Genre has many components that add up to what
the genre may be. Without applying audience, emotion, product, company and market to a
commercial, a commercial would not be considered a commercial. Genre has great impact on
everyday lives, just like a commercial has a great impact on a person purchasing a product.

Comment [ag5]: Nice so what ending. I

think it wrapped up the topic well.

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Works Cited
Alwitt, Linda F. Suspense and Advertising Response. Journal of Consumer Psychology: 35-49.
JSTOR. Web. 8 Febuary 2015.
Crazydesiman. Reebok Terry Tate Superbowl Commercial. Online video clip. Youtube.
Youtube, 30 August 2007. Web. 24 January 2015.
Holbrook, Morris and John OShaughnessy. The Role of Emotion in Advertising. Psychology
& Marketing Summer 1984: 45-64.Wiley Online Library. Web. 25 January 2015.
Now. Kit Kat TV Commercial. Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube, 21 September 2009.
Web. 24 August 2015.
Sportsliveinfo. Best Nike Find Your Greatness Commercial - The Jogger. Online video clip.
Youtube. Youtube, 1 August 2012. Web. 24 January 2015.