Analyze a visual argument to show the creator uses various rhetorical and visual
techniques to persuade an audience.

Name
Prof. Name
English 1
5/08/2013

       Oh my gosh, a talking baby! This is the kind of reaction E-Trade seeks with its commercials. E-Trade uses a brilliant technique of using a baby as its “spokesperson” in order to fully capture the viewer’s attention. E-Trade’s advertisements appeals to its viewers emotions, keeping them fully attentive for the entire duration of the commercial.E-Trade commercials typically revolve around the message of saving money, something everyone would like to do. E-Trade commercials follow a common theme of a baby on who is sitting on a highchair in front of a webcam, talking to you about how easy it was for him to save money, while using a perfect amount of humor. E-Trade does advertising right using ‘baby related’ humor as well as keeps each commercial interesting while still managing to get their point across each time.
It’s hard not to laugh when you see a baby who probably can’t even walk, talking to you about how E-Trade can help you invest your stocks in order to save even more cash. When the baby is talking it isn’t a direct approach about how E-Trade works, rather a humorous entertaining skit, that really captures your attention. A particular E-Trade commercial that really stands out is the E-Trades 2013 Super Bowl commercial, when they synced up a song with the advertisement. This particular commercial stood out because of the choice of the song, Drinking from the Bottle by Calvin Harris, picking this song was very witty humor, a signature of E-Trade. E-Trade also picked this song because it went really good with the commercial, in the particular scene the music was playing the commercial was displaying the “good life” in which everything displayed visually was very random, party like, wealthy, and care free.E-Trade is very consistent at picking certain ‘baby related’ humor that really amplifies the viewer’s appeal.

E-Trade’s commercials always keep their commercials interesting; E-Trade switches up certain aspects of their commercials to help break up the monotony of their commercial. A perfect example of them switching it up was in the commercial E-Trade Baby First Class, they not only used a different baby actor than the original E-Trade commercials, but they also changed up the normal baby room in front of a computer aspect. In this particular case the baby was flying first class on an airplane, coming back from a party with his friend. This simple change in scenery and character is enough to break up the normal E-Trade commercial style, with something unique for E-Trade. We see this a lot in E-Trades commercials; whether they add more babies for a conversation, switching up which baby spokesperson they use, or even adding grownups who directly interact with the babies. These simple changes may not seem like they would keep a commercial interesting, but this really helps people who have seen a lot of E-Trade commercials want to view more.
      Simple yet getting its point across is something E-Trade accomplishes with every commercial. Looking back at the E-Trade Baby First Class commercial, the message they intended to convey was “upgrade to first class investing technology at E-trade.” This message worked really well with this particular commercial because the baby was riding in first class prior to this message. E-Trade keeps their commercials simple, lacking complexity so that the viewers are able to correlate what has happened in the commercial, and then tie all of it together, forming the point. A perfect example of how they do this is in the commercial E-Trade Golf Baby when the baby just got done winning a game against someone who just retired; this retired golfer has been using a retirement plan that doesn’t work making the concluding message “get a retirement plan that works with E-Trade.” Another way to look at this commercial was to focus on the winning and losing of the game of golf they just played, the winner of the game had E-Trade and the loser of the game had something other than E-Trade. The style used in this commercial is the same style they use to get their point across in every commercial; E-Trade will somehow benefit you economically.
After each E-Trade commercial it is a real challenge to resist laughter from all the witty humor they use throughout. E-Trade is also really good at keeping their commercials interesting from start to finish in each of their commercials. With perfection E-Trade is able to execute its commercials resulting in their point getting acrossed. E-Trade really does advertisement right throughout their commercials using the right amount of humor each time, keeping it interesting each commercial while managing to get their point across each time.










Citations:

“E-Trade Baby Game Day Commercial - Save It” YouTube: E-Trade, 29 Jan. 2013. Web. 8 Mar.
2013.

“E--Trade Baby Game Day Commercial – First Class” YouTube: E-Trade, 10 Feb. 2010
Web. 8 Mar. 2013.

“E--Trade Baby Game Day Commercial – Golf Baby” YouTube: E-Trade, 19 Feb. 2010. Web. 8
Mar. 2013.