http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXpGXnUsK9o
The commercial I chose was one I know many people have seen. It is the Dunkin Donuts commercial that everyone is on their rooftops screaming that they love Dunkin Donuts coffee. An appeal to pathos used in the commercial is there is an audience-based reason. The audience targeted is middle-aged working class people, whom many of drink coffee. Therefore, to target this audience’s value of a good cup of coffee to give them the pick-me-up they need they used middle-aged, average looking people that viewers can relate to. This commercial also uses informal fallacies. These include appeals to false authority, bandwagon appeals and hasty generalization. In this commercial, the appeal to false authority and hasty generalization go hand in hand. The false authority appealed is the first lady who speaks up an says “… I just want to say that Dunkin Donuts coffee is the best coffee I’ve ever tasted.” We do not know if she is a food critic or has any credentials to be judging coffee and saying it is the best. The hasty generalization, because of lack of data, is we do not know against what kind of other coffees she is judging Dunkin Donuts coffee. Lastly, there was a definite bandwagon appeal because once the first lady spoke up everyone else in the neighborhood spoke up also and they all loved Dunkin Donuts coffee. This showed that everyone drinking Dunkin Donuts coffee loves it giving the viewers the idea if that many people love it maybe I should try it too.
Clearly, the commercial creaters were NOT trying to appeal to logos. I don't know how logical it is to stand on the roof of a house and scream at your neighborhood about coffee. I've come to notice that most commercials these days are far from logos inspired and more centered on ethos or pathos.
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