Rationale
I was being introduced to the topic of language and mass communication, by my teacher Mr. Heintz. Through this topic, I discovered that media greatly influence our thoughts, as to a certain extent it persuades us. A great example of this will be “beauty”. Beauty has been constantly changing and shaping the way women look and dress. Over the years women’s bodies have been fashioned and influenced by this standard of beauty. From the slim figure of Twiggy to the curvy body of Pamela Anderson. I believe the ideal of beauty in the world of women is hugely affected by female icons who were pictured in the media such as magazines, newspapers and advertisements. In this topic, we also look at how mass media uses language to inform, persuade and entertain their audience. Through all those advertisements that have been shown in class, I found out that a lot of those advertisements uses rhetorical devices such as irony, hyperbole and contrast to entertain their audience. For this assignment I have chosen an advertisement that is from the Mercedes Benz about the fable story of the rabbit and the tortoise, this advertisement has been shown on the NFL Super Bowl in 2015. I am going to write a recommendation letter to the President and CEO of Mercedes-Benz USA – Dietmar Exler, to give him some of my advice on that advertisement as an audience.
7th March 2018
Dietmar Exler, President
Mercedes-Benz LLC
Montvale, New Jersey 07645
Dear Mr. Dietmar Exler
It has always been a pleasure to watch Mercedes-Benz advertisements, as all the cars in the adverts look tremendously sporty and with aerodynamic body shape. The brand Mercedes Benz has always given me an impression of being a luxury car brand that makes sports cars. A few days ago, I was re-watching the annual championship game of the National Football League for 2015, and I saw this advertisement about the new Mercedes-Benz AMG GT that was going to launch for sale in the April of 2015. The advertisement itself is not only persuasive but also very creative. What really offended me was you guys change the meaning of the fable, which is not an ethical thing to do.
First let us look at the successful part of this advertisement, based on the assumption that this advertisement’s subject is the new Mercedes-Benz AMG GT, and the purpose of this advert is to entertain and persuade people to buy the AMG GT. The cartoon is actually a computer- generated imagery, this is very expensive to make as it requires technical support. By using the computer-generated imagery, it not only shows that the Mercedes-Benz is a very rich company, but it could also help Mercedes-Benz to widen their target audience. By showing people Mercedes-Benz is rich, it indirectly addresses that Mercedes-Benz is a competitive company, therefore the quality of the product is trustworthy. This advertisement is being shown on the Super Bowl, which is a championship game that all American football lovers will bring their family to watch. By using computer-generated imagery, it is not only trying to persuade high-income families to buy this car it also allows children that are only around 5 years old to understand what the advertisement is trying to convey, making the Mercedes-Benz AMG GT their dream car. There is also a rhetorical device that is being used successfully in the advertisement, hyperbole. There is a scene in the advertisement that the tortoise is striving to march forward and a slimy snail just past by saying “On your left, coming through!” overtaking the tortoise. The use of hyperbole exaggerates how slow the tortoise is moving, trying to address that the turtle will never win the race against the rabbit. Using hyperbole, it also emphasizes the speed of the new Mercedes-Benz AMG GT, as further in the advertisement the tortoise uses this car to overtake the rabbit. It is looking forward to convince sports car lovers, as through this advertisement there is no doubt on the speed of this car. In the advertisement there is another scene that shows the factory of the Mercedes-Benz AMG GT. In that scene, it shows the machinists of Mercedes-Benz is adjusting the engine of the car by hand and fitting the engine towards the car by an automated machinery. This shows that the manufacturing of the car AMG GT is under control of a strict regulation, every single part of the engine is being carefully checked before fitting onto the car. This is showing that the Mercedes-Benz AMG GT is a luxury sports car with good quality, again persuading people to buy the car.
After looking at the successful part of this advertisement, I want to give my recommendations on the part that was not successful. First of all, this advertisement uses a famous fable story “The rabbit and the turtle”. The original meaning of this fable story is to tell people to be humble, not to be proud, never underestimate the weakest opponent and to never give up keep trying. Using this fable story for business purpose is not ethical, as to a certain extent it changes the meaning of the story. In the advertisement, the turtle drives the Mercedes-Benz AMG GT to overtake the rabbit. To a certain extent it could be count as cheating which is immoral, as a vehicle is being used in the race, it is not a fair race. My suggestion is that it is great to be creative but try not to use a fable story that has moral meaning in it, instead use other well-known stories that do not have any moral meaning. Another part that was not successful for this advertisement is that, there are no detail statistics of the car that is being shown, such as the price, amount of carbon emission per 100km and the horsepower… This advertisement maybe quite informal for people that are professional in cars, as there are no statistics. According to the writing center of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, “Numbers and statistics are powerful pieces of evidence that can effectively strengthen any argument.” Therefore, my suggestion is that use some statistics in the advertisement. Although sometimes statistics could be boring, but if it’s being used correctly statistics can be powerful evidence and command the attention of the audience.
I wish you could take my recommendations into consideration, this could help the Mercedes-Benz LLC to make a more persuasive advertisement for the future.
Sincerely,
Jerome Soh
Work Citied
“Super Bowl 2015- Mercedes-Benz Fable Ad” Youku, Uploaded by Parkermanson by 30th Jan 2015, http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XODgyNzYwNTA4.html?spm=a2h0k.8191407.0.0;from=s1.8-1-1.2The Writing Center. The of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/statistics/, accessed date 20th Feb 2018.
