snickers peanut butter squared + sharks

While I was searching the Internet, a commercial popped up for the new Snickers peanut butter squared bars.  (If you haven’t tried one yet, they are exactly what the name implies…a Snickers bar with peanut butter ...oh and they’re really good too!)  Anyway while I was watching it, I realized it would make a pretty good topic for my rhetoric blog because it held examples of what we’ve been going over in class (ethos, logos, and pathos).

            First of all, I believe I stated before that I am quite terrified of sharks, so when this commercial popped up I kind of felt it was like a sign. The creators of the commercial played upon sharks’ reputation of being bloodthirsty man-eaters when they put together this commercial. This appeals to ethos because with “real” sharks’ reputation and the “commercial” sharks’ dialog about preferring Steve because he tasted like Snickers and peanut butter, the audience felt that claim was credible because sometimes sharks do eat people.

            The logos appeal was in a humorous kind of twisted way. The market-researcher was gathering her information by asking which human (Lisa or Steve) tasted better.  The commercial setting was in a boardroom/conference room and the research was photos of the two people that had been eaten.

            Finally, like me, most people are afraid of getting eaten by sharks and by capitalizing on this fear the commercial creators are playing on the commercial’s pathos.  In addition, this commercial defies audience expectations.  The viewers don’t expect to see sharks essentially judging a candy bar by which person tasted better and are surprised when the man is pushed through the door to ultimately be sacrificed to the sharks.