Rhetorical Analysis Of Old Spice Ad

In 2010, Old Spice launched a series of humorous commercials featuring Isaiah Mustafa as “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like.” They are incredibly successful commercials, albeit strange. Portrayed in them are grandiose and lavish lifestyles featuring costly belongings ranging from gondolas to horses to yachts. The commercials were an overnight success and quickly became a cultural phenomenon, generating significant word-of-mouth buzz online and offline. In its commercial, Old Spice effectively convinces its viewers of the urgency surrounding their new product by appealing to their own underlying desires, affecting their decision making without being cognitively recognized. The narrator achieves this by specifying the foundations of attractiveness, …show more content…
By using rhetorical techniques, Old Spice incites the longing in its audience to have the soap in their shower. Using every man’s desires to his advantage, the narrator addresses attractiveness, provides examples, and exhibits a self-confident persona to further persuade his watchers to purchase the product. Old Spice plays heavily into one of man’s foremost wants instilled by society. Men become more inclined to make a decision in favor of the company as their yearning to feel attractive surfaces. The exemplification of a grandiose style of living further pushes the audience to come to the settlement that this new soap is, in fact, a necessity. When imagery is advertised in that way, a sense of eagerness is drawn out of the audience; the promoted idea is that viewers will now feel attractive, and they will also secure the deluge of perks that comes with it. Moreover, buying it assures that confidence boost will ensue, even though it is obvious that the association between the product and the benefits is nonexistent. The rhetorical devices in this commercial are successful marketing techniques and call the audience to purchase the