An integral application of rhetoric is in today’s advertising. A synthesis of both visual and textual/audio rhetoric, television ads surprisingly enough provide basic arguments that are effective because of their comedic nature. Chevy’s “Happy Grad” is no exception to this.
The scene consists of parents congratulating their son on graduation. The gift they had given their son (based on the bow on it) was a mini-refrigerator; however, an ironically parked Chevy Camaro right next to it gives the son the impression that his parents had given him the yellow Camaro as a gift. In total exultation and celebration, the son explodes in happiness as he tells random people, his friends, and even marries supposedly his girlfriend in what he declares, crying, as “the best day of his life”. During all of this, the parents patiently wait to tell him, believing that his craze will eventually die down as it just seems to heighten. The commercial ends when we watch a Mr. Johnston drive off in the Camaro that actually belongs to him. The graduate looks to his parents in total, comically extreme shock.
By rhetorically analyzing “Happy Grad” for argument, we find the basic structure of Toulmin within this advertisement. The major claim of this advertisement is that if you buy your graduate a Chevy Camaro for graduation, he will go insane with happiness. This is backed by the grounds provided in the advertisement: Chevy suggests that your sons or daughters will too blow up with happiness upon receiving a Chevy Camaro. The grounds and claim are put under a rather sketchy warrant, but one that is humorous because of it. The warrant states that graduates and most likely people in general will go berserk if they were to receive a Chevy Camaro as a gift.
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