Jocelyn Starcevich

ENC2135-0070
10/14/2021
Ad Summary and Analysis

Nike Ad:
It shows a bunch of scenes of women reacting in sports games, competing in sports, and
doing things women haven’t done before in the athletic world. Each scene is accompanied by
commentary speaking about how men view the events and encouraging women to continue
“being crazy”.
The context of the ad is inequality of women in sports and how women in sports are
viewed compared to men doing the same. It’s written by a woman in the Nike company for the
audience of women in sports. The purpose of the ad is to encourage women to keep doing the
challenging acts despite the criticism they receive, since they’re changing current history. It
appeals to ethos since the speaker is a woman and is accompanied by many scenes of women
proving her point. It appeals to pathos by invoking an inspiring emotion in women watching. It
appeals to logos by providing many different examples of women acting “crazy”. The exigence
of the ad is the current atmosphere surrounding women in sports which views them as unequal
and lesser than their male counterparts, along with the pay disparity between women and men in
sports. It’s organized by giving different spoken phrases about what has been said towards
women in sports and showing clips of women in sports carrying out those stereotypes. The tone
of the ad is optimistic, inspiring, and encouraging since it urges women to continue breaking the
stereotypes placed upon them.
I really liked the ad since it shows women acting exactly as men do in sports, just placed
with more criticism when they show their passion. I think it’s important for many girls and
women to watch it to inspire them to continue challenging the athletic world that has been
dominated by men throughout history and to keep striving for their best despite the backlash. I
also appreciated how they used a female speaker for the ad rather than a man, because it would
have been pretty ironic for them to do so. It’s encouraging to hear a female voice urge other
women to continue breaking boundaries between men and women’s sports.

Pepsi Ad:
The ad shows a bunch of people protesting with a few scenes in between of individuals
doing things normal to their daily lives such as developing film, playing an instrument, or
participating in a photoshoot. Most people are shown holding a can of Pepsi. Slowly, each
individual notices the protest and rushes to join it while leaving their task behind. Everyone
walks up to a line of police officers and Kylie gives a police officer a can of Pepsi, which he then
drinks from. Everyone is shown cheering and rejoicing at the interaction.
 The context of the ad was the BLM protests that were happening around the same time
period. There is no speaker besides the creator of the ad, Pepsi, as music is playing in the
background the entire time. The audience is meant to be the citizens of the US and its purpose is
to both encourage the protests while also attempting to promote peace. It appeals to ethos by
including very limited people of color and Kylie Jenner as the recognizable character. It appeals
to pathos by attempting to invoke inspiration amongst the audience and a sense of pride by
including a protest. It doesn’t really appeal to logos as far as I can tell. The exigence of the ad is
the Black Lives Matter protests which were happening all across the US and included many
different groups of people working towards a common cause. The structure of the ad cuts back
and forth between the protest and the individuals working on their own tasks until they all join
together at the end; it also cuts to a can of Pepsi quite often to center the ad around what they’re
trying to sell. The tone of the ad is meant to be inspiring and heart-warming, but it falls short due
to the oversights of the production team.
I find the ad to be incredibly offensive and belittling to the movements since Pepsi used
them in an awful way in an attempt to make profit. The entire protest involved everyone smiling
which tries to paint the protests as involving people content with the current state of society
when, in reality, it was full of people absolutely angered by the state of the country. The protests
were full of people passionate about the cause, not just some social gathering. No one in the ad
was fearful of the police like the people at the BLM protests which is just an awful oversight by
Pepsi. They also implied everything would be solved with a simple gesture of peace like offering
the police officer a can of Pepsi, when the police were the true aggressors at the protests and the
cause of the protests to begin in the first place. I truly don’t understand how Pepsi thought this ad
would be okay to air, and the fact that they did just goes to show how disconnected these
companies are with reality. They will exploit any topic in order to make a profit and hold
themselves on a pedestal. The only way the horrific events that caused the protests should ever
be used as marketing material is for the company to express their support by donating funds and
time to help the cause. Even then, subjects like the BLM protests shouldn’t be exploited for
capital gain.