Volkswagon Beetle Commercial Analysis

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Rhetorical Analysis of Visual Media (Volkswagen Beetle) In every advertisement, there is a central theme the company uses to pull the viewer/ readers attention to their argument. In the 2011 Super bowl commercial for the new Volkswagen Beetle, the company’s aim (argument) is to change their image. They have always been seen as “cutesy” and often times as a less than manly manufacturer. They introduce the idea of a new, sporty version of Volkswagen. They are now suddenly hip and energetic! This happened when they introduced the new 2012 VW Beetle. They argue in this ad that their company is now full of handling and speed, horsepower and superior engineering. They use tools such as visual flags, metaphors, symbols and the appeal of ethos to help support this argument. The most prevalent of the devises used is the visual flag. It becomes apparent within the first few seconds of the commercial with the abnormal beetle zipping past the others (who represent past models and/or their competitors. This will be discussed in later paragraphs.) It begins with a pretty peaceful, natural scene. It’s quiet and there’s not a lot going on. The bugs are merely minding their own business crawling along, when the first visual flag suddenly takes place. This small, black, literal beetle flies past what we thought were our protagonists. This suddenly makes the viewer ask “what is so much better about that particular bug?” This automatically creates the argument that the new VW Beetle is something totally different and revolutionary. Keep in mind that it is less than ten seconds into the commercial, the viewer has no idea what is being advertised yet. All they know is that they are hooked and interested in seeing why this bug is so much different. This visual flag has done its job, of all the flags in the commercial, the first is the most important. It has captured the viewer’s

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