"Maybe" Commercial with Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan’s “Maybe” Commercial



Link: www. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woOu_4l3lio


Making commercials and advertisements usually make use of many different methods of persuading potential customers. There are three methods or modes that are associated with making this type of means of persuasions. In order for this to happen, the three modes used in order to communicate these responses include ethos, pathos, and logos. Ethos has to do with credibility which is based on one’s character or appeal of personality. Pathos is the part where the commercial makes an appeal to the readers or viewers emotions, causing the viewer or reader to identify with the writer’s point of view. Logos appeals to the logical means of persuading by reasoning and backing up what the writer is saying and giving reasons to support the evidence. By viewing Michael Jordan’s “Maybe” commercial, let’s see how this commercial targets all ages and how this system can be applied to this commercial.
First, the commercial is very simple. The advertisers use the first seconds of the commercial to show Michael Jordan “flying” through the air to make his usual baskets, while Michael Jordan’s in the background narrating that maybe it was his fault that led people to believe that “it was easy, when it wasn’t” pertaining to the fact that people believed it came easy for him to be the best basketball player there was. Then the commercial continues with Jordan’s stats of all the awards he is has received, like him holding the record for most NBA scoring titles (10), all NBA – first team for seven seasons, NBA Rookie of the year, NBA Slam Dunk Champion and these stats and more are quickly shown. Since this is factual information, viewers are already attentive to hear what the narrator; in this case Michael Jordan has to say. His character or his celebrity status is used to gain recognition for the product he is promoting, which is his own brand jumpman.com and the Nike brand which has heavily sponsored him since he started and continues to do so. At this point, viewers have their emotions all stirred up because they feel they didn’t know Michael Jordan felt this way. Michael Jordan does a good job of telling the viewers again, that “Maybe he lead them to believe that his game was built on flash and not fire” and “that failure gave him strength.” Here, even though not everyone is a basketball fan, the viewer can associate himself with these two statements because we all have our strengths and we all have had to prove ourselves in way or another. By showing all the places where Michael Jordan practiced, the high school he attended, advertising his alma mater “Laney High Buccaneers” and having the outside basketball court where he often practiced, he is showing the viewer the “regular” side of the great legend. Another meaningful scene is the basketball lying on the outside court, the scene is dark, the basketball hoop does not have a net but a few dangling strands of a net blowing with the current of the wind. The wind is blowing with all the leaves, sticking to a no brand, plain brown basketball. Viewers feel like Michael Jordan is just another human being that makes the best of what is given to him. He did not grow up with a silver spoon in his mouth and by showing his humble home (when he was growing up) with all his family pictures, you already feel something warm for him. People start to feel that they are getting to know him by the things he is saying and the tone in which he delivers the message.
Here, Michael Jordan is using his social status, identity, reputation, his fitness and self-esteem to suggest that he is an ordinary man but the difference of why he has gotten so far, is because he worked hard to get there. Even tough Michael Jordan is not seen through most of the video, his voice puts out a clear picture of what he is talking about, being successful. The commercial is setting the viewer up for the final key advertisement promotion that is aimed for all ages. They show the trophy room of Michael Jordan. What can be better than that? All those trophies and that huge room with the Bulls logo makes anyone want to be successful. Finally, Michael Jordan is shown with a group of young men, probably wanting to be basketball players, with him finishing his talk as though he has been talking to them since the start of the commercial. The advertisement is maximized by Michael Jordan telling them, “that maybe, you’re just making excuses”. Again, as you look at all the young men that are standing in the gym, they are wearing the jumpman logo, giving the viewer the idea that they too want to be like Michael Jordan and wearing his clothes will make them have the same feeling as they do now. In the last frame, it states, become legendary and then it closes with the Michael Jordan logo, jumpman23.com. From the commercial’s subjective point of view, wearing clothing that has to do with Michael Jordan will give them the feeling of belonging to something that is perceived of that which is greatness. The person wearing these types of clothes perceives himself, self-worthy. Parents get caught up in this type of advertising and want their children to feel good about themselves and so they go out and buy the product that would do just that.
In hard times and in good times, when celebrities are used for advertising, the product which they are tying to sell will get a better chance of making it big with these sort of advertisements that don’t necessarily tell you to go out and buy the product but, offer different meanings for different groups of people thus, offering visual rhetorical context.