Video from youtube.com
- Medium of Delivery:
The artifact I have chosen to rhetorically analyze for Starbucks is their advertisement from September 4, 2014 called Meet Me at Starbucks. The medium for this artifact is a television commercial.
2. Ethos: Appeals to Organizational Credibility
This commercial shows Competence by showing that employees “anywhere around the world” will be at the store “on any given day.” They are saying that they and their employees are dependable and that they can produce their product successfully, daily. By not only stating what can be found an any Starbucks, but also by showing it, they are also demonstrating that they can produce a sense of Community. Community is shown in the commercial by showcasing real Starbucks customers, from 28 countries, in one day. These customers are all from different countries, races, backgrounds, and yet they are all a family because they are apart of the Starbucks family. This makes viewers want to be apart of the family too and visit a Starbucks.
3. Pathos: Appeals to Emotions
The Needs appealed to in this commercial are love and belonging, creative outlet, and inclusion. The advertisement demonstrates Starbucks as being loving and excepting which makes viewers feel included and loved. The commercial also showcases customers participating in personal hobbies in the store, this represents their store as a creative outlet for all people.
The Value being appealed to is Community. The commercial shows many people coming as one to Starbucks. The explicit appeals in the commercial describe the many qualities that can be found at Starbucks, including: love, respect, sharing, and more. These appeals are held high to society so by saying that Starbucks also has them, makes them appear trustworthy. Their is no discussion of participation in philanthropic or charitable activities or praising individuals who enact these values in this commercial.
Identification is showcased throughout the commercial because it explores that at Starbucks customers can be themselves by: using technology or sign language to communicate, play games with one another, share, and more. The commercial uses common ground by using real customers and assumed “we” by showcasing Starbucks as a community and inviting anyone and everyone into it. The use of unifying symbols is shown in Starbucks’ logo, their classic green straw, and their coffee cups. The logo is viewed more than five times through out the video and the straw can be seen more than ten times. This is shown as evidence that these customers truly are at Starbucks and that their brand is recognizable by these items. It does not show identification by antithesis.
4. Logos: Use of Claims and Evidence
The evidence represented in the Meet Me at Starbucks commercial is the many customers visiting the store. They act as testimonials which is Inductive reasoning by example. Inductive reasoning by analogy and casual reasoning are not represented in the commercial.