Assignment on Critical Analysis of Commercials

Running head: CRITICAL THINKING COMMERCIAL
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Critical Analysis of Commercials
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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CRITICAL THINKING COMMERCIAL
Part 1:
The persuasive and effective commercial Analysis:
Advertisement Chosen: Axe "Find your magic" campaign
The advertisement begins with a bang on music and man with a pointed nose, a lean physic
and a wicked smile is with a lady in the car and there is a big digital screen in front of them
where a muscular well built man showing on his six pack abs. The narrative begins in the
background with a strong voiceover saying who needs abs when you got the nose? And then
it moves on breaking one after the other age old taboos associated with masculinity, gender
bias and the labels of perfection and beauty. Finally the advertisement reaches it climax when
a man is seen sporting heels, a pink dress and showing some extremely fascinating dance
moves to men making pizza dough expression love for the same gender and most importantly
feeling comfortable in their own skin. Finally the narrative needs with a saying “who needs
the other thing when you got your thing” (Axe, 2016)
Premise-conclusion Approach:
The first and forest striking feature of this ad is that 33 year old brand finally gives up its
notion than “Sex sells” and concentrates on the bigger picture of celebrating the individuality
and finding magic in one’s real self. This radical shift was driven by a simple understanding
that Axe with its stereotypical presentation of men had stopped attracting its consumers.
Hence “find your magic” campaign was an effort to renovate the brand’s image. Be it men
sporting pink dresses, showing attraction towards the same gender, making pizza dough or
dancing in heels the visual does stand out and creates the impact ("Case study: How Axe
redefined masculinity", 2020) “Find your magic” is more of an action campaign rather than
just selling a product because it intends to bring a significant change in the society, convey a
message which is quite necessary to break the stereotype and aims to being a revolution. It is

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no doubt related to a product however there is definitely a big picture behind it which tells a
greater story of a positive change.
Identifying the use of ethos, pathos, and logos in the commercial.
The use of ethos which basically surrounds around using popular faces to cater the necessary
audience connect has not been central to this advertisement rather the focus is on using
ordinary faces of the mass to make it more authentic. The use of pathos which basically deals
with the emotional connect is well built in the narrative and works wonders where as the
concept of logo or the presence logic or reasoning is again well attributed with the choice of
the background voice, the placement and angle of each visual shot and the use of an
appropriate music (Toppano & Toppano, 2014).
Suggestion:
 Small visual in-texting in the shots might stand helpful in understanding the narrative
much well as it goes quite fast
 Adding a call-to-action appeal the end of this advertisement might make it more
persuasive for the audience
Part-2:
The Less Persuasive and ineffective Advertisement:
Advertisement Chosen: Heineken 2018 'Lighter is better' advertisement
This 30 seconds commercial begins with a bar tender having a binoculars in his hand and
is looking at a beautiful “white” lady and then spins a beer bottle and slides it to reach her.
Then the bottle is seen sliding through tables, streets, and finally stopping right near the glass
of that lady. There is peppy music playing behind and the commercial ends with the note,
“Lighter is better” (Heineken 2018 'Lighter is better', 2018)

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Premise-conclusion Approach:
This advertisement is not just unattractive but created serious controversy on terms of being
racist in its appeal. The accusations are quite valid because the bottle of beer is seeing
crossing a black musician, two black ladies and finally stop right next to the glass of the
“white woman” with the tag line “Lighter is better” makes it more evident and justified
("How did this happen? Behind Heineken Light's 'lighter is better' ad mistake", 2020).
Identifying the use of ethos, pathos, and logos in the commercial.
There is no such use of ethos present in the commercial, neither is any evident pathos or
emotional appeal rather than just a vague presentation of beauty with a sexist and racist
humour and finally the use of logos is largely missing since the commercial shows the beer
bottle sliding from tables to streets to plains which actually defines al the possible laws of
physics (Nichifor, 2014) .
Suggestion:
 This commercial altogether needs to reconsider its message and the technique of
portraying it, without using any racist humour
 The best the brand can do to restore its image is produce an ad campaign which would
be more like an apology message rather than selling its beer

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References:
Axe, C. (2016). Axe, "Find Your Magic" [Video]. AXE Find Your Magic New
Commercial 2016.
Case study: How Axe redefined masculinity. (2020). Retrieved 19 April 2020, from
https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/case-study-axe-redefined-masculinity/1430092
Heineken 2018 'Lighter is better'. (2018). [DVD].
How did this happen? Behind Heineken Light's 'lighter is better' ad mistake. (2020).
Retrieved 19 April 2020, from https://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/heineken-light-s-
lighter-ad-mistake/312887
Nichifor, B. (2014). Theoretical framework of advertising-some insights. Studies and
Scientific Researches. Economics Edition, (19).
Toppano, E., & Toppano, A. (2014). Ethos in Sound Design for brand advertisement.
In ICMC.

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