So, Who Are They Talking To?

One of the first things to consider when evaluating the rhetorical aspects of a piece of literature, a video, a speech, etc. is who the potential audience is. There seem to be different audiences for the 1960s commercial and the 1990s commercial, which greatly affects the style of the video. In the first, the video seems to appeal to women watching who may be in a similar situation to the woman depicted. That is, she cannot make coffee well enough to please her husband (for the purpose of audience analysis we will ignore the inherent sexist nature of the ad). For women in this situation, a play on the damsel in distress motif, seeing that something as simple as buying a different brand of coffee can solve their problem may be enough to encourage them to try Folgers. In the 1990s commercial, on the other hand, the video is aimed more towards men. It seems to propose that Folgers is the ideal coffee to buy because, just like the man in the video, Folgers will help improve the relations between a man and his wife. Some men hoping to make their wives happy may be swayed into believing this. Hyperbole like this often plays a role in advertisements because the goal of an ad is not only to connect those viewing it with the actors, but also to produce something so funny, entertaining, strange, or otherwise memorable that the brand name sticks in your mind when you shop. Simply speaking, both of these advertisements were geared towards a married person, but emphasized different aspects of the marriage relationship to target a specific consumer.

Corey Ferrick