Rhetorical Analysis of Apple commercial

In the commercial that I made an observation about in the previous post there is evidence of each of the rhetorical strategies that we learned about in class. Logos is an appeal to logic or thought, pathos is an emotional appeal, and ethos is an appeal of character. Each of these can be seen separately in this commercial.

The first that can be seen right away is pathos, as the sheep drone into the propaganda room we get a feeling that life in this world isn't so great and that we wouldn't want to be a part of it all too much. The next thing that we see is a woman completely different from the rest of the people in this society, she has hair, colorful clothes and she is liberated from this society, we know this because she can run. This is an ethos sort of appeal, we see this person and we know that whatever it is that she is going to do it will be good and we want to be the same. Finally after she has hurled her hammer into the screen we are told that the reason why life wont be like this is because of the Macintosh that will be released by Apple in the year 1984 then we logically fill in the gaps. "I don't want to be like those people, I want something that will keep me liberated like her, this is logos at work.

I chose this commercial because right away I saw the different rhetorical strategies at work through different symbols, I also wanted to choose a commercial that isn't current so I could see if they were as prevalent then as they are now. It appears to me that they are.

Apple Computer is the only way to combat the communists

This Commercial was first released in late 1983, it is a commercial for Apple's Macintosh it depicts a world were everyone looks identical marching through a hallway to a room with a lead figure delivering a speech of how the residents are one and as a whole. This represents the most easily identifiable feature of a dystopia. More specifically the dystopia described by George Orwell in his novel 1984 which is the year Apple released the Macintosh. The commercial then shows a women who isn't as pale as the rest of the people shown in the commercial and she is wearing unique clothing and running with a sledge hammer. We then see that she is running from the enforcers of this dystopia's ideals and we are certain that it is a crime to thing freely in this society. As she continues to run the speech being given by the omnipresent figure is reaching a climax, and everyone is hypnotized in his words. The woman stops in front of the screen and hurls that hammer directly at it, destroying the oppressor of this society and liberating all who live in it. We then see "On January 24th Apple Computer will release the Macintosh, and you will see why 1984 wont be like 1984."