“Never” Commercial Rhetorical Analysis
Natalia Norzagaray
University of Texas at El Paso
Abstract
The analysis of a commercial ad will be constructed to explore the different
aspects of its rhetorical elements. This commercial created by and for State Farm, an
insurance company, includes a well-developed story line that allows you to see into
the life of a typical man from his 20’s to late 30’s. To accurately assess the content of
the commercial different topics such as ethos, pathos, logos, context, tone, audience
and several others will be discussed.
State Farm, an American insurance company known for it’s catchy
advertising and their hard to forget jingle “like a good neighbor State Farm is there”,
produced a commercial that is out of the usual. The State Farm commercial entitled
“Never” was produced with different intentions and a different approach than other
State Farm commercials targeting emotion and at the same time providing humor.
In this essay the different rhetorical appeals, content and effectiveness of the
commercial ad will be discussed further to understand it’s purpose in persuading
possible customers to signing up for their insurance services.
The commercial’s audience contains a wide age group considering that it is
basically a fast-forward of a guy’s life from when he was in his twenties up to his late
thirties. It is targeted towards women and men both. There are different roles being
portrayed; for a man the possibilities of what may come, such as getting married
and having babies, and for women what the “ideal” man should be like supporting a
family and being responsible. The target audience may also be geared towards white
families in the middle-upper class. The characters in the commercial are all Anglo
American and they live in the suburbs in a fairly sized house.
At first, it starts out with a guy protagonist looking at an attractive woman at
what seems to be a college party following up saying “I am never getting married!”.
The next scene shows him getting an engagement ring. Every scene he says
something that follows up with the complete opposite of what he says he was going
to do and it precedes similarly throughout his life. This type of genre would be a
family friendly setting attracting young families reminding them to make sure they
are protected. The effectiveness of the commercial is supported at the end when
they show the scene of the father being portrayed holding his family and saying “I
am never letting go”. This moment of realization is perfectly contrasted with the
image of the loving family.
The strategy used to create credibility was to draw you into the storyline
long enough to see what company or product was being sold. At the beginning of
this commercial it wasn’t very clear of what product, service, or company it was
intended for until the end where they show the State Farm logo with the company’s
website at the bottom right. The commercial shows different scenes, which get you
involved in it and therefore interested in seeing what is being sold. This supports
the purpose of ethos by selling the insurance that State Farm provides. By showing
the logo it immediately provides credibility pertaining to what the commercial was
trying to explain or in this case the service it was trying to persuade you to buy.
The logos element is easy to depict from the fact that all of the situations that
are portrayed throughout the commercial are, in general, situations that may occur
to someone in their lives. If the guy in the commercial is experiencing these
situations they might happen to you as well; therefore, you should be protected by
State Farm. There is some form of logic that everyone can connect too when they say
they are “never” going to do something and then they go right ahead and do it. Such
as when he says that they are “never moving to the suburbs” and the next scene is
them living in the suburbs probably because their family grew and they had to buy a
bigger house. It also depicts, to certain audiences, the way a man will mature
throughout his life and several of the results you will find by growing up. With this
the commercial’s producers provided an example of how different events can
change your expectations and how you can be prepared for them by having State
Farm.
The emotion this commercial ad creates may vary from audience to audience.
To a man the pathos attempts to possibly forewarn or sympathize with these
situations. For a woman these certain situations might make them feel a sense of
hope and at the same time raise their expectations of what they want their
boyfriend, future spouse, or husband to be like. The commercial especially attempts
to target these emotions at the end when the guy says, “I am never letting go”,
emphasizing the fact that he has evolved from a young individual to a man. Women
tend to be affected by these actions especially coming from their significant other
creating a sense of happiness and relief. The overall tone of the commercial affects
the pathos as well. The guy seems to be very negative repeating “never” every time
he says something such as “we’re never having kids”, but the commercial takes a
turn at the end making it a very positive outcome.
The music element in the ad plays a big role to affect your moods throughout
the course of the commercial. When he says something that he’d never do the jingle
is a bit faster paced and hopeful then it follows with a slower tune to support the
complete opposite of what he said he was going to do. By doing this, the viewer may
become intrigued to see what is going to follow after the music slows down. At the
end the jingle is very mellow and joyful to emphasize the happy ending and creating
a factor of relief. Also to make sure the audience hears what he says the music slows
down throughout every phrase.
The commercial includes all of the rhetorical elements to create a successful
persuasive ad to bring in a large audience and in this case a lot of clients. The
content was explained throughout the essay to understand the effectiveness and the
strategies that were used to draw the audience in. From the beginning to end it
follows through with the same theme making it easy to follow and for some people
easy to relate to. It provides a good feeling to the viewers and leaves you with a
positive outlook. These are the type of commercials that viewers will remember the
most increasing its chances of being successful.
References:
Farm, S. [statefarminsurance]. (2015, Feb 14). State Farm® commercial - "Never"
[Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/O1Z91YkPatw