JUST DO IT

JUST DO IT


We are all familiar with Nike, right? They advertise mostly with commercials showing people working out or being athletic in their perfectly perfect Nikes basically giving every viewer the false hope that if we wear Nikes we will all the sudden be athletic and in shape and immediately have swag. While I do love my Nikes, wearing them does not at all make me athletic.. I just look athletic.. and if people have no swag to being with, its hopeless. Since picture ads only ever get glanced at for a second if even that, the advertisement department apparently decided to get creative with this ad in hopes of at least a pause for the reader to think, "Is that a kid peeing..? Why is he being encouraged to 'Just do it'..? OH, Nike". Instead of advertising the statistics about the product or company, the viewers emotions are touched on, specifically their sense of humor. This strategy is called pathos, or the capacity of a text to invoke emotions, and is the only rhetorical strategy used in the ad above. Since humor > statistics any day, the ad even probably attracts an even bigger audience than it would have if it had been full of ethos or logos (I'm just going to assume people know what those are). The purpose of the ad is obviously to attract people, generally people who already are Nike fans since technically all it has is a check mark and a child peeing, back to Nike for even more purchases. Worked on me. I went online shopping after seeing it/ writing this and am now $50 less rich than I was. Stupid pathos.