Manipulative Rhetoric

 I believe that the greatest examples of manipulative rhetoric are the food commercials that portray food as literal perfection when in reality, it's not so pretty.  I would like to single out dominos, and McDonalds in particular.  I feel like when I see a McDonalds commercial, or a dominoes commercial, the fries are perfect, the bun is toasted and fluffy, and the cheese on the pizza is always so damn cheesy.  I know that sounds cheesy, but the reality is that McDonald's buns are actually smashed into a little box, and cheese on dominoes pizza just comes completely off in your first bite.  It's really a big let down.  Then, in 7th grade or so, the truth popped out.  There were videos everywhere of how Mcdonalds made their burgers look so perfect.  The patty was fake, the bun was professionally toasted, and then the icing on the cake was that the whole burger was held up so perfectly by toothpicks. It gave the lettuce tomato, and bun the perfect stack.  Then, there was the Dominoes video.  The cheese was an extra stretchy glue mixture, and the rest of the pizza was held down by literal nails.  I will not lie.  Up until 7th grade I was always wondering how the pizza on the sides of 18 wheelers looked so perfect, and now I have my answer.  Screw you Mickey D's...Dominoes is still good though.  

On the other hand, a great example of the less manipulative ads include those for medicine that cures psoriasis, shingles, or exima.  Not sure if I spelled that right.  But.  My point stands that while they do portray a happier life without these medical conditions, they also are very honest.  Typically in the end of the video the guy that talks super fast will explain the repercussions of takin such medicines.  

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/p7W5-0xBAu4


Comments

  1. Charlie LondonOctober 4, 2023 at 8:52 AM

    I like how you annalyze this and talk in your personal voice. However, is that a bad thing? They want to portray their products as best as possible. Just like how many other ads are staged.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AlexOctober 6, 2023 at 8:25 AM

    I think most of us assume we're being lied to by advertisements, but it's still unnerving when we see proof of it like this.

    ReplyDelete

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