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Rhetorical Analysis Of Alcohol Advertisements

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Rhetorical Analysis Of Alcohol Advertisements
September 16, 2011

Rhetorical Images in Alcohol Advertisement

In our everyday lives we come across different types of advertisements from a variety of products. Alcohol is a product that shows in their advertisements a mix of feelings and emotions, such as fun, happiness, self-stem, power, sex, and interaction with the opposite sex. All advertisements use rhetorical images and visual effects to make their product more appealing to consumers. But what is the purpose of these advertisements? How do we get to see just the images, and immediately think, I want to try this alcoholic beverage.
I have chosen three advertisements from different alcohol brands to analyze the meaning these images project towards the audience.
First, the Bacardi
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1 Bacardi Advertisement
Fig. 1 Bacardi Advertisement
On the bottom of the advertisement we can read “Zoning Inspector by day, Bacardi by night” this phrase is frequently use to show two different types of identity a person may have. In this case, this man works as a zoning inspector by day and thanks to Bacardi he can have a double life, this second life is obviously more fun and entertaining than his regular day life. We can also see a Bacardi bottle on the bottom right side and the Bacardi symbol on the bottom
This advertisement clearly shows man as the main center of attention and women as objects.
The second advertisement I selected is the Jose Cuervo advertisement provided by the Jose Cuervo Especial Tequila Company. The image below (Fig. 2) is presented in black and white and at the bottom there is a text or headline in a gold border. It is evident from the visuals and text that the perspectives of these ads are directed from a male point of
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The visual shows the woman laying down wearing a bikini and a man fully-clothed in a suit. The man is featured from the chest down straddling her as he holds the bottle of vodka and two martini glasses. Since there are no words in this advertisement, the entire message is contained in the visual. The use of visuals is a very powerful tool used by advertisers to communicate its message. As discussed in the research paper of Exploring rhetoric: alcohol and Absolut Vodka advertisements, the authors explains that the “Exposure to visual imagery can also lead to a highly cognitive understanding of advertisement” The visual nature of the Skyy Vodka ad forces readers to interpret the messages

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