-Mariah
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Your Coffee is....MURDER
When analyzing a piece of media, it is important to understand how the media attempts to connect to the audience. The 1960's Folgers coffee ad puts into use both logos and pathos, as well as a combination of the two in order to justify why consumers should purchase their product. When the scene opens, off the bat, the coffee is referred to as "criminal," the use of the word criminal appeals to logos because the audience thinks immediately of someone who has done something terrible. The comparison of the coffee ad to criminal, logically makes the audience believe that the coffee is at the same level of a criminal. The reference puts in mind that coffee that tastes that bad is a crime and has the capability of murder. With that said, considering the coffee is capable of murder, the ad plays on pathos. The wife gave her husband the coffee to drink, which means instead of the petunias, it could of been the husband who died from the coffee. So emotionally one would believe that they couldn't provide such bad coffee to their spouse because it is potentially dangerous. With both examples in mind, the two together provide the means of persuasion. Logically and emotionally, one wouldn't give their spouse something potentially harmful. This allows the audience to believe that any other coffee brand is a potential danger and that Folgers is the only good kind because it is mountain grown. The coffee being mountain grown also plays on logos. The audience believes that the coffee is good for the body because it is natural and from the mountains.
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It also implies that even if your wife cannot make good coffee to save her life, then you can still enjoy a cup of delicious coffee by purchasing Folgers. In turn, this serves as a logical appeal to men whose wives cannot make coffee to buy Folgers.
ReplyDelete-Shawn Rosofsky
Another aspect of this ad that you could analyze is how the woman gets her advice about what coffee to buy from a man at the grocery store. This demonstrates the idea that the man always knows best, even if it is in what is normally the woman's domain.
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ReplyDeleteAlthough this may be a bit more literal than what has already been discussed, a huge application of logos runs through the plot of this ad. The change from an angry husband to a happy, thankful husband was only signified by purchasing Folgers. Putting the obvious sexism aside, the ad simply portrays the logical connection that Folgers alone must equal happiness.
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