Syllabus Blog #6: Rhetorical Criticism of Popular Culture

“The Neo-Aristotelian Perspective”: The Droid

“A neo-Aristotelian perspective helps us discover persuasive strategies used by orators by reconstructing the context where the speech occurred and audience expectations, and then examining the message accord to the five classical canons (categories) of rhetoric” (Sellnow, 2010). These five canons are: invention, arrangement, style, delivery, and memory. I have chosen to critique the Verizon cell phone commercials for Droid.

Droid "Stealth" Commercial



Droid "Sufer" Commercial


Phase 1: Invention
Invention represents the content of a message (Sellnow,2010). The content represents their argument. For example, when you are purchasing an item in the store the person who helps is often the person who persuades you to purchase or not to be purchase the certain item you were looking at. According to Sellnow, the content for invention consists of inartistic proofs and artistic proofs. Inartistic proofs are “external sources such as facts, statistics, and personal examples found in books, journal articles and research reports or taken from interview with credible sources to support claims. This means that when people are trying to sell you something the use of statistics and credible information helps convince you that the product you are looking for is correct or incorrect, depending on what you are looking for.

Phase 2: Arrangement
The Arrangement phase is based on the organizational structure of the speaker's message. The organizational structure of the message is "chronological, spatial and problem/solution" (Sellnow, 2010). This means, how the message comes across to the audience. The Stealth commercial for the Droid commercial is set up so you don't know what is being advertised till the very end. It draws you in because it's a mystery. People want to know what is inside the missiles being dropped from the jets.

Phase 3: Style
Style refers to "the language used by the speaker" (Sellnow, 2010) or in this case the commercial. Style is the words that are chosen by the speaker or commercial to make you interested. Style is how the words affect the audience (Sellnow, 2010). In the Droid commerical that refers to a surfer in correlation with the Droid and it's Internet speed. The advertisement states that the speed of the internet browser is the same of a pro surfer at pipeline. Pipeline contains very intense waves so the commercial creates this image of being able to withstand challenges. The words used in the surfer commercial for the Droid is that the droid can go the "furthest expanses of it's universe, deepest depths of it's oceans without as so much as getting a grain of sand in your shorts, [it can go to] wave shredding web-speeds". These words each create an image of strength. Also, it is almost virtually impossible to be in the ocean without getting sand somewhere so the fact the Droid can be compared to that put it in a league all it's own.

Phase 4: Delivery
Delivery "focuses on the speaker's actual presentation with regard to their voice, body and presentational aids" (Sellnow, 2010). The presentational aids can be either positive or negative. This means the speaker has to make sure they use positive aids or people aren't going to listen to what they have to say. The voice refers to how knowledgeable the speaker sounds in regards to what they are talking about. The question is whether the speaker is "understandable, conversational and engaging while talking" (Sellnow, 2010). Body refers to their behavior. For example, eye contact, facial expressions and clothing. According to society the clothing that you wear determines your personality. So, it is very important for a speaker to look professional. In the Droid stealth commercial the delivery is actually literal. Each cell phone is inside what looks to be a missile dropped by each jet. No words are administered at this point. Words would take away from the mystery of what is inside of the missiles. No one words make the stealth commercial very powerful.

Phase 5: Memory
Memory refers to how much "control the speaker seems to have over the material--his or her confidence and fluency" (Sellnow, 2010). Memorization is more important when it comes to purchasing a product in a store because it shows that the speaker knows what they are talking about and isn't just guessing. It is important that in memory phase that the speaker use the fact and statistics because you are more likely to pay attention if the speaker sounds knowledgeable.


Work Cited
Sellnow, D. (2010). The Rhetorical Power of Popular Culture. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.