In his article titled “Rhetorical Situations and Their
Constituents”, Keith Grant-Davie explained in details what does rhetorical
situation means in both writing and real life, he was also precise while
describing its four elements which are: exigence, rhetor, audience, and
constraints. He began to introduce the idea of these elements, or in another
word, constituents, after preparing the reader with the definition of
rhetorical situation, which really matters since knowing them make us aware of
the commercials goals and help us in visualizing the commercials too. Therefore,
while trying to make some sense of the definitions of these elements by giving
examples, I will consider 3 commercials and briefly observe each of the four
constituents of rhetorical situations in each of them. Avacado from Mexico
would be my first example, then comes the Doritos When Pigs Fly’s ad, and will
end it up with Cartier Winter Tale’s.
To be prepared, I will consider Grant-Davie’s definition
of the elements mentioned above. He posted Lloyd Bitzer’s definition of the
exigence and added two questions that, in his opinion, would address the
exigence more accurately, “what the discourse is about, why it is
needed, and what it should accomplish.”(Rhetorical Situations and Their
Constituents, 106) And according to Grant-Davie, the rhetors are the ones who
are responsible for the discourse, he included that “Well-known actors or
athletes may lend the ethos they have established through their work, while
unknown actors may play the roles of corporate representatives or even audience
members offering testimony in support of the product.” (Rhetorical Situations
and Their Constituents, page 109) Thus, we can understand his way of
differentiating between both the audiences and rhetors. Whereas the
constraints, in my opinion, is the most controlling element in the rhetorical
situation. He had also quoted Bitzer’s definition for this block, who defines
it as “persons, events, objects, and relations which are part of the situation
because they have the power to constrain decision and action needed to modify
the exigence.” (Rhetorical Situations and Their Constituents, page 111) Knowing
these terms and what they mean is important for us in both writing and real
life, because they help in predicting what and how will the audiences reply or
react to us. Thus, as writers or speakers who consider these terms, we will put
ourselves in the readers or audiences shoe and do our best by presenting strong
and enough evidences that will convince them to be in our sides, or make them
understand our positions. And this is exactly what happens in commercials.
Figure 1: In the discourse
Figure 2: When
Mexico’s choice was out
It is obvious that the exigence in my first example would
be the informing part by the old man who plays the role of the speaker in the
discourse, to tell what each state or country had picked for herself, and
smoothly lead for Mexico’s choice of avocado. The rhetor of the avocado’s
commercial would be the old man who is rolling the discourse, while the
audiences are the other three American men who were giving comments after he
declares each country’s pick (see figure 2). We can notice from his smile (see
figure 1), that he supports this specific choose. And from his pause from
speaking (from 0:44 until 0:46), that he wants the inner audiences to be excited
to know what did Mexico select. These expressions, of course, do not show up
unless we are completely agreeing with something; and therefore, this is a sign
that prepares the outer audiences to the main point that is meant to be
transported to them. Lastly, the constraint was the avocado, since choosing it
for Mexico had clearly delighted the audiences inside the commercial; their
reactions toward this pick differed from the picks that were previously
mentioned, such as the sloth and the dodo bird. One of them had stated “that
makes the avocado of Mexico the ideal snack”, and this can show what the
company of the commercial wants to deliver to us as outside audiences. This ad,
nonetheless, used humor to persuade the watchers and attract them to the product.
And because ads are being ignored these days, the company created something out
of standing, by making it before 4 billion years, and used wide imagination on
it to tie the avocado with Mexico, instead of directly go for their purpose. Of
course, we know that they also tried link the concepts of both logos and ethos
to this commercial, to make it more successful, by making the old man declares
in a funny way what had been decided by the presidents and higher members to
each state.
Figure 3: The boy asking for Doritos Chips
Figure 4: The boy planning to get it
Figure 5: “When The Pig Flies” moment
Figure 6: The boy getting the chips
The boy’s craving for Doritos chips and his tries to have
some from the old guy, would be the exigence of the second ad. We know that the
little boy is the rhetor, since he is the one who took a step forward to solve
his problem of wanting the chips, while the older man is the audience, because
he had, kind of, pushed him to make the plan of making the pig flies.
This little boy wants to deliver for his audience that he really is serious
when he asked for the fries, and that he would do whatever he can in order to
get it. The constraints for this commercial were the pig and the rocket, as
without them the little boy will not have the chance to have some chips. By
letting the boy makes a plan to achieve something impossible to get some Doritos,
the company of this commercial exaggerates the yumminess of, and the craving
that the boy has for, this fries. And by doing so, they make the outer audiences
excited to taste something like this product. This commercial used humor to
deliver their message too, and used an outstanding idea of making a plan for
the sake of chips. Humor is always a good choice to go for when it comes for
ads, because we, as outsider audiences, usually mute our televisions in films
breaks, unless these ads deserve our time. However, when it comes to
Doritos ads, you can call me a fan. Why? Simply because I like their use of
humor in most of the time.
Figure 7:
Cheetahs throwing Christmas gifts
Figure 8: People received it
While going further for Cartier’s commercial, the
exigence would be the problem of the boxes that slide from the sky to Paris
city because of the cheetahs. And the rhetors are the cheetahs, in addition to
someone who did not show in the ad itself, yet his name was presented in the
background song, who is Santa. Whereas the audiences within the commercial
were not directly presented too, these audiences are Paris citizens. A good
example would be the house owner who did not show in the ad, yet the Christmas
tree and the gifts that were there inside his/her house, and the Cartier box
that had fallen there to him/her (see figure 8), indicate that he is meant to
be one of the audiences. The rhetors in this commercial apparently want to
bring happiness for the audiences by gifting them, and to point out that Santa
is really there for good people. I would say that Cartier’s commercial has the most
powerful constraint among those three ads, because they cleverly used Santa but
presented him as the small tigers –which represents Cartier, in the same time; because
they were the ones that pushed the boxes to the edge of the skies (see figure
7). We know that Santa can control the percentage of success of the commercial
because he is popular and a source of joy for the children, who will have fun
watching this cute ad, which might lead for letting the parents or any other elder
notice the ad too. Although this ad is somewhat mysterious when finding the
rhetorical situation blocks, but it is fascinating and clearly attracts
children and ladies the most, since it is soft and delightful. And as usual for
ladies: when it comes for jewelries and soft music, it is always touching too;
therefore, we can notice that the use of ethos in this ad differs than the
previous two which used humor instead.
It is nice to recognize that we can learn from these
commercials and notice how they interact with each other in spite of their
differences. In other words, even though they came from different companies and
advertise different things, but they all follow the same strategy and consider
the exact same elements to achieve their goal of attracting people to their
products. It is also noticeable that each one differ in a way. For example,
Cartier’s commercial has invisible audiences who were not shown in person.
Doritos When Pigs Fly ad has a single audiences, leading to the understanding
that it is not necessary have to have a bunch of audiences as what was shown in
Avocado in Mexico and Cartier’s ads. These commercials, nonetheless, enlarged
the good qualities of the products in a good way, and delivered the message
they wanted, that is, to let us notice their products, by nicely promoting to
them.
Works
Cited
Avocados From Mexico – #FirstDraftEver
Commercial. YouTube. Avocados
from Mexico, 1 Feb. 2015. Web. 01 Mar. 2015.
Cartier
- Winter Tale. Youtube. Cartier, 17 Nov. 2014. Web. 1 Mar.
2015.
Grant-Davie, Keith. "Rhetorical Situations and Their
Constituents." Writing about Writing: A College Reader. Eds.
Elizabeth A. Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 101-16.
Print.
When Pigs Fly - Doritos Crash the Super Bowl
2015 WINNER OFFICAL. Perf.
Nelson Talbot. Youtube. Nelson Talbot, 9 Nov. 2014. Web. 1 Mar. 2015.
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