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 belong. While one can find ways to lose weight by themselves, the author portrays losing weight as a group effort. The Metrecal for lunch bunch come together and drink Metrecal to help them stay slim and trim. In doing this, he sends the message that losing weight does not necessarily have to be a “you” action, rather a “we action; so it brings a sense of belonging. The last group the author targets are those who do not want to follow a strict diet plan. Towards the end of the commercial the speaker says, “Then at night, you can enjoy dinner. Eat sensibly, but eat the food you like.” Here, he goes against the idea that dieters have to eat certain foods in order to lose weight. He presents dieting as a platform where everyone can eat their choice of food, but just in a controlled manner. In doing this, his audience are drawn to Metrecal’s new way of dieting. Even though the author of this commercial targets specific audiences, he is overall promoting the diet drink to everyone. He desires for everyone to include Metrecal in their lunches. However if they can not, they can still eat their usual meals in the right proportions in order to stay healthy.
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...
I agree that this commercial captures a broad spectrum of audience demographics, both the slim ones and non-slim ones. I would like to add that being a televised commercial also contributes in drawing in its audience because the creators are able to manipulate the visual components to disseminate positive vibe and image about the effects of purchasing and using Metrecal. I especially liked that you highlighted the sense of togetherness and community this commercial is attempting to achieve in order to fully win over its audience.
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ReplyDeleteThis was a really interesting read. I really enjoyed reading about the distinction made between the two audiences, slim people and those who desire to be slim, and how that was reflected throughout the commercial. I think it is also interesting to point out the importance of the fact that this was a television commercial. Television ownership was skyrocketing across the U.S. around this time and it was probably commonplace to be watching TV near one's kitchen. I especially liked how you identified the many different subsets of audiences that this commercial appealed to, and also how, specifically, each one was appealed to in the commercial.
ReplyDeleteThis commercial was very fascinating since I though diet products were invented way after the 1960s. I particularly like how you pointed out that the commercial goes against the idea of needing to eat certain foods to stay slim. I understand how that can be appealing to people since it makes losing weight seem like an easy process. It also seems to boost the appeal of Metrecal since it seems like Metrecal will automatically slim people down. I would like to point out that the use of the rhetorical question "who are they?" makes the slim people seem mysterious which adds to the general appeal of the weight loss product.
ReplyDeleteI really like your analysis of the different audiences. When I first watched through the commercial, the only audience that I was thinking of was people who were interested in losing weight. However, after reading through your analysis, it became clear that there are multiple audiences. It was also smart to pull out the fact that Metrecal is advertising as a group activity. By not just selling it as a drink but as a group get-together, Metrecal might have been able to attract people who just wanted some new friends, like you mentioned in your post.
ReplyDeleteI agree with all of your statements. I think you did well to go through all of the possible audiences for this commercial. You might have wanted to add that the rhyming of the commercial might have caught attention. I like the way that you organized this post. You went through the video and showed which lines targeted which audiences.
ReplyDelete^Justin De Burgo
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