Journey Home Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Superior Essays
GoDaddy.com: A Nightmare for Dogs and Rhetoric Alike It’s near impossible anymore to log onto Facebook or watch TV without seeing a video relating to or about a dog. Whether it be a sad video about shelter dogs or a funny video of a dog beggin’ for a treat. Companies use videos of pets, especially dogs, because they are a subject that for the most part is universally loved. Because of this, it’s indisputable why the commercial at the 2016 Super Bowl for GoDaddy.com was under scrutiny. Instead of being a success for GoDaddy.com to promote their service, the commercial titled “Journey Home” creates negative emotions for their audience, poor logic behind the subject matter, and attempts to use humor to glorify puppy mills. The pathos of the …show more content…
Subsequently, the ad becomes morally and ethically questionable to the audience because of the owner’s reaction. This creates the reliability of the service the website provides to be questioned as well. Because of the rhetoric they use, they have created a negative ethos for their company that goes beyond this tasteless ad. There is a Budweiser commercial from Super Bowl 2015 titled “Lost Dog”. The commercial is about a lost Golden Retriever trying to make his way home after being lost on a farm. Sound familiar? When discussing their plans for the commercial “Journey Home” GoDaddy.com states, “We are taking an advertising tradition – a tried-and-true Super Bowl commercial convention – and turning it upside down…People love cute, little puppies in Super Bowl commercials, right? The power of our next Super Bowl ad is how it pivots from what you think is a traditional ‘Hallmark’ style commercial into something unexpected” Unfortunately for GoDaddy.com, this attempt to play on tradition failed terribly. The difference between “Lost Dog” and “Journey Home” is that the Budweiser ad ends in a way that pleases the audience. Budweiser’s commercial is made to tug on the heartstrings of the audience and makes the audience feel positively towards the product it promotes (being Budweiser) even though it had nothing to do with the actual product. Regrettably for …show more content…
“We’re Listening, Message Received” GoDaddy.com, 27 Jan 2015, Accessed
10 Sept 2017 https://aboutus.godaddy.net/newsroom/news-releases/news-releases-details/2015/Were-Listening-Message-Received/default.aspx “Journey Home”, GoDaddy.com, Accessed 7 Sept. 2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYWUxHLm83Y “Lost Dog Ad”, Budweiser, Accessed 7 Sept 2017

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