The speech of Iris Cross, the woman in the commercial shows several kinds of arguments:
Arguments to inform; Arguments to convince; Arguments about the pas/present/future; Invitational Arguments; Rogerian Arguments.
1. Arguments to inform: At first, Iris introduced the BP Company, the purpose of the company, the detailed work of herself and their service area. Such as: “my job is to listen to the fisherman, the hotel and restaurant workers and find ways to help” and “we have 19 centers in 4 states”. These statements declared several facts about the nature of the BP Company. I personally think that she did well in informing the audiences. Also, the underlying messages showed some information for audience to check and contact.
2. Arguments to convince: Iris gave out several evidence, both visual and verbal to support the idea that BP Company is really helping out and it is trying its best to improve the oil spilling working. Also, when Iris said that she was born in New Orleans, she was trying to prove that other BP workers are just like her, are just normal and native people. We can also consider this as ethical appeals since it also showed the women’s credibility.
3. Arguments about the past/present/future: In this commercial, Iris told us how bad environment used to be and how BP was going to turn into in the future. At present, the BP crew are trying to make the situation of the oil spill better. However, I can’t see a great effectiveness in this argument because other people’s initial idea might be different from what Iris said.
4. Invitational Arguments: Even Iris did not say the aspiration that the audience take part in the BP programmes, but the website and the telephone number shown at the bottom of the screen implicitly declared this wish. The speaker wants the audience to join and be active. Even I think this point is not so clear in the commercial.
5. Rogerian Argument: Rogerian argument is based to find a common ground between the speaker and the audience, and to keep things none threatening. And in this commercial, Iris was trying to tell us that she is a normal person like all of the audience by saying that she was born in New Orleans and her family was still there. By doing so, she was making a common ground between her and audiences, especially the native people who lives near the gulf. In this way, the people might be activated and start up to contribute to the BP or oil spilling programmes.
I really liked how you pointed out that this commercial used both visual and verbal support to show that BP is really doing all they can do to end the tragedy of the oil spill. The visuals were very strong! Great work!
ReplyDeleteyou neglect to mention a primary fact in the United States, which is the race of the speaker. That BP has hired a black woman as their spokeswoman is as pertinent to the audience as the fact that her family lives in the area. Her family are likely other black people, who are the ones who are usually most affected by disasters in the gulf coast. By using her as their mouthpiece, BP is undercutting their image as a foreign company exploiting united states oil reserves in a careless way.
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