Rhetorical Analysis for May 8, 2007

Everyone loves a good pizza and therefore the pizza making industry is well saturated. This gives great incentive to convert individuals to become life long customers of a specific pizza chain and one recent Pizza Hut commercial is focused on just that. The commercial is focused on those people who like pizza but are not regular Pizza Hut customers. The reason they focus so intently on this specific group is that they want to get more people to try their pizzas and hopefully create lifetime customers. THE ad opens with a Pizza Hut delivery boy delivering a pizza to the home of what seems to be an ordinary family. Near the end of the transaction the wife grabs the delivery boy and violently jerks him into the house. A moment later her husband shows up from work and has a Papa Johns coat on. They then proceed to have short discussion about how Pizza Hut has the best pizzas. In order to appeal to the target audience the commercial uses several different rhetorical approaches. First it has a logical appeal. Toward the end of the commercial it mentions how Pizza Hut pizzas had won a national taste competition over both Dominos and Papa Johns. This both appeals logically to people but at the same time builds the ethos of the company, making them seem more credible and reliable. The greatest appeal though is the emotional appeal. The irony and humor in the ad create a relaxed feeling and a positive feeling toward the company simply because it made the future customer happy. Another effective emotional appeal is introduced by showing well made delicious looking pizzas. This creates a desire to buy the pizza for no other reason then it looks good. The underlying theme of the commercial is: Buy your next pizza form Pizza Hut. As for the target audience it seems as though it would be very effective in getting them to try Pizza Hut next time they wanted a pizza. Creating a lifetime customer however will take more then just this ad.