A Rhetorical Analysis Of Mazda's 'Driving Matters'

Do people consider cars to be part of the family? Even if not, Mazda is trying to influence people that cars are now an essential part of the traditional American family. In the ad “Driving Matters,” created and produced by Mazda, they latch onto this idea and appeal to potential consumers by creating an ad that depicts the growth of a young man and his Mazda by his side the entire way (Driving Matters). Ad creators attempt to re-establish themselves as a family-oriented company by using a humanistic approach to appeal to the viewer’s senses of humanity, opposed to their most known image of “zoom zoom.” Their effort to expand their image to broader meanings outside of their previous single worded slogan turned into the production of a new slogan: …show more content…
The creators accomplished this by starting the “story” when a young man turned sixteen and received his first car, a Mazda Miata. From this point on, the ad shows and describes every significant event this young man experiences, all with his car. From rambunctious teenage years, to settling down and having a family of his own, to being middle aged with a new sense of self-expression and freedom, he always has a Mazda vehicle to represent that stage in his life. The intended effects of using this rhetorical feature are to purposefully give the work a sense of the typical American family; a happy couple that met while they were young and had children together. Because this story is one that seems so common, it makes the ad relatable to most people and allows the car to fit into a person’s general plan for the future. The sense that this ad is based off true experiences creates the idea that it could be anyone and relate to them as well. This directly ties back to Solomon’s theory of humanism because it appeals to the typical humanistic value of a traditional family structure and providing the idea that the car is an essential part of the characteristics of life that make humans what they