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Memorandum
TO: Professor Jasmine Williams
FROM: TNeria Ransom
DATE: 4-22-14
RE: Nike

The advertisement that I chose to rhetorically analyze was the Nike ad featuring Tidiani
Sokoba. The speaker of the commercial was the Nike Company as a whole. Multiple
different products were shown in the commercial displayed so it was not just referring
to one specific branch of the brand. The occasion that is being spoken about in the
commercial is achieving your dreams no matter what obstacles you may face or
challenges that may come along the way. The intended audience for this commercial
would anyone who is interested in purchasing sports gear or who is involved in any type
of sports. Although the featured sport in this commercial was basketball, this company
produces accessories and gears for a variety of different sports and sports players. The
purpose of this commercial is to show that with the assistance of Nike products like
sweats, sneakers, and basketballs, as shown in the commercial, one can achieve the
things that they would personally like physically, whether its losing weight or beating a
record time. The subject of this commercial would be basketball in particular since it
was the sport that was featured and used.
The rhetorical appeals used in this advertisement were logos and pathos. Logos
was used effectively because since Nike is a popular and effective brand for exercise
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savvy individuals, they were able to establish their credentials by backing up a story of
someone attempting to chase their dreams with the use of their products. Pathos was
another rhetorical appeal that was used effectively in this commercial. They appealed to
the audiences emotions with the use of several different visual effects and elements
such as the use of a black and white effect instead of color along with a narrator with a
hearty and emotional tone of voice to convey their message.
I chose this specific commercial by Nike because it appealed to me using pathos
and logos. It was something that I felt I would be able to analyze with a smaller level of
difficulty because of the multiple elements used to persuade the audience. The process
that I used to draft this essay included watching the video multiple times as if viewing a
play by play, recording the different quotes that were used to effectively display the
story on the screen, and finding different articles related to Nike that proved that they
are a credible speaker.

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