The E-Trade Baby - Essay Example

Running Head: English The E-Trade Baby A Rhetorical Analysis Introduction Three years ago, during Super Bowl XLII, E-Trade entrusted its public image to a talking, and puking baby. The next day, E-Trade registered more new accounts than it had on any other day in the companys history. Dozens of promotions and a couple NFL championships later, the "E-Trade baby," as hes been christened, is one of the most recognizable ads on television, and one of the most famous spots in Super Bowl history. This paper carries out a rhetorical analysis of the E-Trade Baby commercials, that is, the ethos, pathos, and logos.

The Rhetorical Analysis: Ethos, Logos, PathosSuper Bowls are widely recognized for their artistic and ingenious advertisements. In order to identify the rhetorical strengths and weaknesses of the E-Trade Baby commercials, their ethos, logos, and pathos should be examined. Ethos implies the personality and trustworthiness of the speaker associated with the argument. Ethos raises issues of ethics and confidence between the speaker and the audience. In terms of ethos, the E-Trade Baby ads are quite effective in drawing out the interest of the audience by using an ‘infantile’ personality that normally appeals to the emotion of audiences.

In terms of integrity, the ads are also successful since the babies’ ‘voices’ are from trusted people in the finance and investment industry. The E-Trade Baby simply used the attractive and adorable personalities of the babies to convey its reliable messages about financing and investing. The ads successfully identified with their audiences and their argument. They also appeal to the sense of necessity of the audiences by building a whole new realm of investing, or also referred to as electronic trading.

Logos denotes the application of numbers, statistics, reason, and logic. Quite frequently, logos appears concrete and material, far more tangible and ‘real’ compared to other rhetorical techniques that it does not appear an advertisement approach at all. In terms of logos, the E-Trade Baby ads are quite illogical since it is commonsensical knowledge that babies cannot talk in the way they are portrayed in the ads making the entire endeavor weak within the domain of logos. But in terms of the presentation of statistics and facts, the ads have been concise and straight to the point.

Pathos appeals to the emotions of audiences. The E-Trade Baby ads try to appeal to the emotions of love, compassion, affection, sympathy, and happiness. They successfully used an emotional appeal by identifying with the sense of their audience. The ads did not abuse any ethical or emotional appeal since they did not distort the facts just to get the attention and interests of the audiences. The ads’ strongest ability rests in their pathos.ConclusionThe components of ethos, logos, and pathos are existent in all television ads, but the methods these rhetorical components are applied rely upon the form of delivery the promoters decides to implement.

The E-Trade Baby ads are an indirect address, speaking to the audiences indirectly through the powerful use of ethos and pathos. Yet, the ads fall short in terms of logos.