Skip to main content

What's the logic in Metrecal?

Imagine that you have decided to shed some weight by going on the diet? There are many ways you can take to lose that weight such as exercising, cutting out fatty foods, in-taking the right amount of calories, and many more. Yet in the 1960's Metrecal Commercial, the author makes a logical claim by saying that drinking Metrecal will help you lose weight. Once the speaker introduces the slim and trim ones, he states, “They’re the Metrecal for lunch bunch. At lunch instead of fattening food, they have delicious Metrecal milkshake flavors to help stay slim and trim.” Here, the speaker justifies the reason why he calls the bunch slim and trim. He states that they are slim and trim because they drink Metrecal and in order for them to stay slim, they continue to drink Metrecal just for lunch.
In order to persuade the audience even further, the commercial includes the nutritional value in Metrecal by saying it contains “the protein that hungry dieters need” The speaker does a great job at including this statement because the audience now knows that they are not just drinking milkshake-flavored drinks, but they are gaining the daily nutritional value of protein they need in this Metrecal drink. Although this statement may be true, it also makes a hasty generalization of dieters. It quietly assumes that the reason why hungry dieters are hungry is because they lack protein. Therefore by drinking Metrecal, the protein in it will nourish their hunger, which could or could not be true. A hungry dieter can drink multiple cans of Metrecal and still feel hungry because they lack other important nutrients in their system. However even though this is a logical fallacy, it works in favor for the company because the main goal of the commercial is to persuade people into losing weight, not to acquire protein they do not have. Including this statement was just additional information perhaps for anyone who was looking for how it benefits their body. Altogether, the use of logos helps to strengthen the company's claim and gains the attention of people who are aiming to be slim and trim.

Comments

  1. The Women's Rights Movement ENG101October 9, 2017 at 12:35 PM

    I like how you pointed out the logical fallacy in the commercial because it shows how advertisers manipulate their audiences to sell their product. It also shows how intertwined logos and pathos are since, as you pointed out, the advertisers can use this logical fallacy to appeal to their audience's emotional misgivings about the product. I also think that the logos in this commercial is meant to add to their ethos. By giving an audience facts (even if they're not true) the advertisers demonstrate that they conduct scientific research.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownOctober 9, 2017 at 1:42 PM

    The ways you displayed how the company Metrecal used logos are insightful and give the viewer a better understanding of how the company makes the advertisement more convincing. I also like how you pointed out that while the commercial employs logos, it might not actually be based on sound facts and statistics. Do you think the advertisement needs a stronger appeal to logos to become more convincing or do you think the reliance on ethos and pathos is sufficient?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cina MakresOctober 11, 2017 at 7:25 PM

    It is very interesting and wise for the company to state that their product includes "the protein that hungry dieters need." First, they are connecting with the audience and addressing the struggles of dieting, and not eating the amount of necessary protein. In addition, they use this statement to avoid revealing the realistic nutrition information regarding this product. Nice post!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Metrecal's Main Argument

The main stasis in Metrecal's 1960's commercial is Consequence. It is also known as Cause and Effect and can be found in most commercials then and now. Metrecal's cause and effect focuses on the benefits of drinking their product. The commercial states that if you drink Metrecal for lunch, you can eat whatever you want for dinner (within reason) and still lose weight. This might be a bit of a logical fallacy, since they never say how it works or how long you need to use it before seeing results. They leave their cause and effect open ended so you can come to your own conclusions. They also do this in order to save face if someone is unhappy with their product without having to admit to giving baseless information. Another stasis that could be applied here is Evaluation. When people see the commercial and hear what it has to say, they make up their own minds on whether the product is good or bad. This often goes hand in hand with cause and effect because most effects have po...
4 comments
Read more

What is SlimFast Even About?

The commercial, SlimFast - Yes I did, is a relatively simple commercial.  It opens with people dancing to a song while holding various SlimFast products. They all act very happy and excited, presumably because of the weight loss items they have. The people in this commercial are all attractive and are there to make customers think that they too can become attractive if they use these products to lose weight. This rhetorical situation, or Kairos, is one many Americans are familiar with. Since the later half of the 1900's, people were viewed as attractive only if they didn't exceed a certain weight. Because of this, many companies started looking into selling weight loss supplements. Today these are sold in many different forms such as food, drinks, and pills. Over the decades, weight loss products have become very popular in American culture. The weight loss industry makes upwards of 40 billion dollars a year, and even though there is evidence that the weight loss industry is lo...
4 comments
Read more

Metrecal's Audience

In the (Diet Drink) - Metrecal Commercial (1965) , it promotes a new and sweet way of losing weight: through a protein-filled milkshake. While doing this, it seeks to gain the interest of different groups, in which it succeeded. The commercial first begins by saying, “Here they come. The slim ones. The trim ones. Who are they?” By beginning the commercial with physical descriptions of the people, the author immediately catches the attention of two audiences: People who are slim and people who desire to be slim. This is because if a slim or trim person is watching this advertisement, they would be eager to know how the author identifies the slim and trim ones; as it relates to them. The second audience, those who desire to be slim, will be curious to know why there is a commercial specifically being made about slim and trim people. Moving forward, the author of the piece then says, “They’re the Metrecal for lunch bunch.” At this point, the author is appealing to those who yearn to belon...
7 comments
Read more