Texting And Driving Advertisements

Specific Purpose: To persuade my audience to avoid texting while driving so they will not get injured or injury someone else.

The facial expression of the woman as she is being hit, the force of the fist as it collides with her chin, the painted blue and red cars, all these give to the overall message of the ad and gave it that powerful message. This ad really catches the attention of the audience because not only did it raise awareness of safe driving, but also really invites the viewer to think and just maybe acknowledge texting while driving and drinking and driving is a serious danger.

Over 17 million cars and trucks are sold around the world every year. Amongst the plethora of car companies aiming to convince shoppers that their car is paramount, marketing teams ought to go the extra mile. By developing a persuading advertisement, companies are more likely to sell their products. On February 6, 2011, Volkswagen aired a Superbowl commercial for the first time in over ten years. This commercial would be one that awakens the inner child of millions. By employing pathos, ethos, and logos rhetoric techniques, Volkswagen is able to appeal to consumers in order to sell their new car.

Texting and driving are activities that separately are indispensable in everyday life, but together represent one of the greatest dangers society faces on a daily basis, from the moment the car starts and transits to the desired destination. It is so easy to look at the phone while driving! Everyone justifies themselves, “it’s just a second”, but everyone also knows, that only takes a second to have a fatal accident. This is why there is the need to raise public awareness and campaigning as in the Public Service Announcement, “Don’t text and drive”, produced and air on TV by News Channel 6 ABC, where the Pathos appeal in the most powerful rhetorical device used in the PSA and Logos and Ethos are also visible, but they are inferred rather than directly enlisted.

Commercials, such as the 2012 Chevy Silverado Super Bowl commercial, have become part of people’s everyday life, constantly shocking, exciting, and engaging people with the meaning behind them. People see commercials every time they turn on the TV and file the information away for later situations, such as information about a cell phone data plan or a new vehicle just announced available. Each commercial watched promotes some sort of cause, object, or idea that companies want to sell to the common person. Commercials use symbolism, imagination, ethics, logic, and emotion to sell these things using their promoting techniques, one strong example of these things in action being the 2012 Chevy Silverado Super Bowl commercial.

Texting and driving is more dangerous than it seems, taking your eyes off the road for even a few seconds anything can happen. Many innocent lives have been taken by distracted driving. The Public Service Announcement “Don’t text and drive”, displays a teenage girl driving in the car with some friends. The girl then receives a text from her mother that reads “You know when you’ll be back tonight?” As the girl proceeds to text back she doesn’t realize she begins drifting into the oncoming traffic lane, where a young lady is driving with her two children. Before the two cars collide, time stops and the drivers get out to conversate. Once they get back in time begins to move again and the cars wreck. In the PSA “Don’t text and drive” Produced by TranterGrey Media, pathos stood out over ethos and logos. Pathos is used more effectively element in this video.

The speaker had a central idea of texting while driving. I can already tell that his informative speech involves texting and driving, for the video begins with a police siren. This symbolism proves that there is a level of importance in this problematic matter of texting while driving. Another key element that I identify is his visual aid. His visual aid includes a whiteboard that says, “Do Not Text & Drive. Causes Accidents & Collision. Causes Loss of Life! Results in Tickets $.” (Cortes, 2013). This sends a powerful message on the negative impact of texting while driving. By doing this, he is able to catch the attention of his audience; his message can relate to other people that have been victims of texting while driving.

The two ads I chose were the Nationwide ‘Baby’ commercial and the Progressive prank protection commercial. I chose these ads because they show a practical product, that most people use, in an funny and unrelated way. The nationwide ad shows a man taking care of a baby as if it is a car. This commercial is used to promote car insurance. The progressive ad shows agents Flo and Jamie sneaking around in the night pulling off their own version of pranks: fixing mailboxes, replacing windows, and leaving paper bags with money on doorsteps. This commercial is used to promote home insurance. Nationwide and Progressive are two well-known insurance companies.

Shot to aim directly at people who tend to disregard warnings and are most like to be distracted drivers, texting and driving PSA’s bring awareness and self consciousness to the general public as they display from moderate to severe graphic scenes on what happens when you take your eyes off of the wheel. A distracted driving PSA ad is not only one of the best ways to alert people of the consequences of unfocused driving, but it can also reduce the number of distracted driving incidents, thus keeping families not only careful and alert, but alive and safe.

In most commercials, with the little time span they have, they must display their product, they usually try to persuade the viewer to either donate, buy or switch. In these commercials on tv, they use rhetoric appeals to do so and try to keep the viewers’ attention, same with these two mobile companies. While both use all the persuasive strategies, At&T connects through pathos and logos while Sprint relays on ethos and logos. They use these rhetorical appeals differently to keep the viewer wanting to learn more and potentially change to their product. Rhetorical appeals are used in both commercials, but one effectively uses these persuasive strategies to convince the viewer to switch to their network.

The most effective advertisement that I saw during the last-half hour would have to be the United HealthCare TV, “Our Song” commercial. The commercial includes a couple dancing to “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” and preformed the infamous lift scene from the movie “Dirty Dancing.” The ad includes the components of Logos and Pathos. The Pathos relates to the couple’s nostalgia and their “moment.” The Logos refers to the major fall the couple had and the possible need for the healthcare provider in case they sustained any injuries. Also, the humor displayed within the passage makes the experience more relatable and persuasive

According to Business Insider, AT&T spends on average $3.3 billion a year on advertisements alone. AT&T is able to promote their business and have potential customers see that they don’t support distracted driving. This helps sell their product. When teens are just starting to drive, parents are worried about their children being distracted while driving. When a commercial or public service announcement about distracted driving comes up and catches their attention, they are more likely to support the company that sees this as a problem, especially when it is concerning the products the company is trying to sell.

After the audience has absorbed the photos, their eyes skim towards the text found in the middle of the ad that is shouted in bright yellow that “Heather’s life ended too soon”. These words confirm their earlier fears of the girl’s potential tragedy, that has now become a reality. The text continues with a blurb from Heather’s parents until another blast of yellow text appears and states the ad’s message; “Please don’t text and drive. Come home alive.” Taking in the entirety of the ad, Txt Responsibly hit home with its audience of young drivers by connecting emotionally and age wise through its strategic use of pathos, logos, ethos, and kairos. All of these rhetorical appeals tie together and play an important role in convincing young drivers to think before texting while driving because it might just end their

Specific Purpose: To persuade the audience that texting while driving is a dangerous task they should not partake in.

Finally, now that I have shared a possible solution to the problem, let me tell you some of the benefits if this law is in effect. There will be less car accidents, less people going to prison, the economic benefits would have a great effect and text prevention apps will be more developed.