Logic?

The appeal to logos in the Volkswagen ad appeals to men in the 1960's and is based on the stereotypes of women being bad drivers.  Back then, it was taken as logic that women were inferior at driving and completing simple tasks so it was assumed one day if your wife was driving she would crash the car.  The ad successfully uses the logic of the time period and claims that despite the impending crash your wife will be in, the car will be okay and the husband's investment will be safe.  Although this ad appeals very well to the dominate male population of the time, it would not be radical to assume it appealed to the women of the time as well.  Even though the ad is claiming that women are worse drivers, it does indicate that the woman driving would be safe.  This successfully gets the message of the ad through to the audience of both men and women despite the sexism. 

Logos in the GoldieBlox Ad

The appeal to logos in the GoldieBlox commercial is largely absent due to the fact that the commercial heavily relies on a parodied version of the song “Cum on Feel the Noize” by Slade in order to convey their message. For the most part, the lyrics do not contribute towards any rhetoric; the lines “come on bring the toys” and “girls make some noise” do little for the commercial in terms of presenting a logically sound argument. It could be argued that the lines “more than pink, pink, pink, we want to think” in conjunction with the video of the girls successfully building and launching a rocket appeals to logos. Through the lyrics, GoldieBlox asserts that girls are human beings too, and with the video, they show that girls are capable of thinking and building, just as the lyrics state. However, their product is hardly shown in the advertisement, creating difficulties for the audience when making connections.

Ethos in Girl's Engineering Advertisement

It is safe to say that very few of the 111 million viewers had heard of the small company GoldieBlox. Founded just over a year ago, this is a company with very few existing fans, and very little extrinsic ethos. The founder is a female Stanford-educated engineer, but this is likely not well known to the audience. Some celebrity ethos is established by airing during the Superbowl, but most of the ethos is established in the commercial itself. The video shows confident young girls defiantly getting rid of their "traditional" toys, and replacing them with GoldieBlox. The ethos is established through symbolism and a clear message of empowerment. The girls in the commercial are staging a toy revolution demanding that rather than "pink, [they] want to think." Their strong body language and inspiring message are the main techniques that allow this company with very little extrinsic ethos to establish a strong message and create an effective commercial.

Appealing to Men's Ethos

This Volkswagen advertisement is indicative of how society viewed women in the 1960's; incompetent, clumsy, and lacking motor skills. During the time this ad was circulated, it appealed to men's ethos. The ad created intrinsic ethos by displaying their cars' reliability and ability to protect even the most careless drivers, being women. The photograph of a damaged car establishes credibility in the Volkswagen vehicles since although the driver had crashed, the passengers were safe because the wife was still able to drive the car home. Advertisements like these influence men to believe that by purchasing a Volkswagen, he is protecting his wife from her own reckless driving.

Goldieblox Appeals to Engineers of All Genders

During the Superbowl, Goldieblox aired a commercial that embodied society's changing values towards women's roles in the workforce. By presenting young girls as future engineers, Goldieblox recognizes girl's potential to be equally talented in mathematics and physics as men. The rhetoric in this advertisement is what drives its main message. The action of the girls dropping everything and running to a meeting point portrays a sense of urgency, or exigence. The exigence would garner the idea that girls are as capable as males in becoming engineers. Diction is also a piece of rhetoric embedded in this advertisement. The lyrics of the song read "we want to think" and "girls build like all the boys." The use of these lyrics depict that females do not want to be used only for their looks, but want to be recognized as builders and creators like men are seen as by society.

Audience of 1960's Volkswagen Ad

This advertisement has a clearly defined audience of males interested in purchasing a new car. It specifically addresses the audience in the repetition of the phrase, "your wife." The advertisement targets males who have the purchasing power in the household. Most men at this time were the member of the family who had a meaningful job and made the most money. They were often seen as the "head" of the house. Following this, men usually made the decisions regarding purchases for the family. These "heads of the house" would also most likely agree with the stereotype that women were clumsy and not to be trusted with expensive technology. The audience would most likely agree with the message and be relieved that Volkswagen is eliminating some of the problems that their clumsy wives would inevitably cause.

Audience of GoldieBlox Ad

A crucial part of analyzing a piece of rhetoric starts with identifying the audience. This contemporary commercial for GoldieBlox, a small startup company geared at inspiring the next generation of female engineers, premiered at this years NFL Super Bowl on February 2, 2014. Playing on the TV’s of 112.2 million viewers, this advertisement appealed to both young girls and parents; however, it mainly appealed to parents, seeing as they are the ones that would be buying the product and therefore the ones supporting their small company. Because parents were the target audience for this commercial, GoldieBlox showed that their product empowers girls and is better than the stereotypical pink toys that most girls have. Since parents want the best for their daughters, the advertisement persuades parents to buy the product by pushing the idea of girl empowerment onto them.

Sexism Sold

The 1964 Volkswagen ad was made by the Volkswagen company to attract the attention of husbands whose wives drive cars.  The advertisement is implying that the Volkswagen is the best car for women because when they crash, the car won't sustain damage.  The Volkswagen company is using the stereotype that women can't drive as well as men to promote their car's safety value.  The ad utilizes ethos by establishing the fact that women will most likely crash a car you buy them as women were seen as inferior to men.  The ad successfully established exigence by claiming your wife crashing the car is inevitable, however, that is the best thing about the Volkswagen because it will still be drivable and not sustain as much damage.  This ad was successful in conveying the message to the male audience because men saw the picture of the slightly damaged car as a sign that their investment in the car would not be wasted.  Women of the time could have also seen this ad in a positive way because the ad is exemplifying the safety features of the Volkswagen.  The Volkswagen company portrayed its message successfully to anyone viewing the ad.

2014 Feminist Superbowl Commercial