Rhetoric Probe

Rhetoric Twenty-First Century Style

 
              
Pantene Shampoo Commercial

This Pantene commercial is an accurate example of a manipulative text. Its overarching purpose is distinct: to sell shampoo to women who crave long, shiny, healthy, and voluminous hair. As an effective marketing technique, the commercial employs the use of a beautiful celebrity – Eva Mendes – who just so happens to have the gorgeous, bouncy hair that most women rave about. The advertisement thus preys on women who are insecure not only about their hair, but also about their beauty, making a clear-cut demonstration of how long, shiny hair makes a woman beautiful. In watching such a commercial, a woman is subliminally fooled into believing that Pantene is her gateway to having the hair of her dreams. She sees herself as Eva Mendes and Pantene as the answer to her prayers. Moreover, this text manipulates the sense of envy women tend to cultivate when looking at stunning celebrities. For them, women like Eva Mendes are the embodiment of “perfection” and, in using her, Pantene succeeds in deceiving average women into buying its product – one that will never yield the results it seemingly promises to achieve. All advertisements, including this one, have one end goal – to sell a product to impressionable consumers – and they will employ all means necessary, primarily subliminal deception, to coax audiences to indulge in their products.