The ad walks a narrow line, by seeking to be both relatable and hilariously improbable at the same time. The ad really could serve as the definition for such a fallacy, as it moves from tame frustration to a wild and dangerous beating in half a minute of rapid successions, each less probable than the last. The plot, particularly the voiceover, of this piece uses humor to draw in the audience through an extended cause-and-effect relationship that deliberately flaunts the rules of logic by utilizing the classic “slippery slope” logical fallacy. Using “you” in the ad’s narration strengthens the connection between the audience and the story presented. Just after the man is shown getting angry over being put on hold, the picture changes to him aggressively playing racquetball while the voice-over continues, “When you get angry, you blow off steam.” Although “you,” the audience, may not play racquetball, particularly not as a means of venting frustration, it is easy to identify with the words. Sure, the ad may be following the story of this particular guy, but really, this is your story. The audience is also overtly invited to identify with the main character in this ad by the voiceover, which consistently uses the pronoun “you” to describe his misadventures. By utilizing both the generic setting of a middle-class living room and the universal experience of being put on hold, the target audience can instantly identify with this ad. Right away, the audience can identify with the character’s plight, and right along with him, they will desire to avoid his fate. Whether it was specifically a cable company or not, being put on hold is a painfully annoying, universal experience. Also, the man’s obvious frustration at being put on hold with the cable company serves as another powerful commonplace to draw the audience in at the very beginning. It could be any middle-class family’s living room, and that’s exactly the point: if you’re in the middle-class target audience, then this could be your living room. In this opening, the pictured living room is remarkably average, featuring muted tones, generically nice furniture, basic potted plants and pictures, and even a few stacks of mail or papers on various surfaces around the room. The opening shot shows a man sitting on his couch watching TV, then quickly cuts to a closer shot of him, on the phone and obviously frustrated, as a deep male voiceover says, “When your cable company puts you on hold, you get angry.” (Source). The opening few seconds of this ad heavily utilize multiple commonplaces to draw in the target audience. With this in mind, Direct TV made several choices to appeal to viewers according to their narrowed audience. Direct TV is targeting people who are in a position to actually make the decision to switch to their services, so this significantly narrows their audience to primarily middle-class heads of households. The NFL audience is broad, spanning gender, life-style, income, and age differences, but this entire group is not the rhetorical audience for Direct TV’s ad. I have personally seen this ad during the commercial breaks of NFL games, one of the most popular live-viewing TV events in America. Direct TV effectively reaches a broad section of their target audience with the TV spot “Don’t end up in a roadside ditch” by using strong commonplaces, careful word choice, deliberately flaunted logic, and appeals to the pathos of comfort, but their ad may fail to connect with viewers who do not fit the white, middle-class male stereotype. This particular commercial, which appears on major TV networks during NFL games, features a middle-aged white male experiencing a comically exaggerated “slippery slope” logical fallacy from frustration over a phone call all the way to being beat up on the side of an abandoned road. “When your cable company keeps you on hold… you wake up in a roadside ditch.” In just thirty seconds, Direct TV takes its viewers on a rapid-fire journey to demonstrate this far-fetched assertion as part of their “Cable Effects” ad campaign, designed to enhance their own product through negative comparison to cable. At the moment, I’m barely onto my fourth page, so in addition to any other comments you might have, if you see something you think would be good for me to expand upon, please let me know!
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