Rhetorical Analysis
In today´s society women face double standards that gender
stereotypes have created among people which unfairly define them and label them
in comparison with men. Since the early ages men and women have played
different roles in society, but as the time has passed and society has evolved,
these established roles have been slowly disappearing until the point where
women work to sustain a family and men take care of the house. Even though
these gender role stereotypes had slowly disappeared, women are still labeled
in environments where they were not usually seen. In comparison with men, women
are labeled to discredit their efforts to be equal. In the commercial ‘’Labels
Against Women’’, Pantene describes these labels and calls for action for people
to realize this in the commercial through the use of rhetorical strategies such
as emotions, music, colors words and the situations shown.
It is important to understand that Pantene is a brand that sells shampoos and products for the hair care. The artifact media is a commercial that went viral on the internet obtaining more than 36 million views up to date. Before analyzing the strategies, we must first understand that it is a commercial and the main intended purpose is to sell a product. However, in the video, there are no shampoo bottles or recommendations of the product displayed. Because their strategy consists of sharing a powerful message that will be popular among their intended audience and cause the brand name to be more popular and therefore more likely to be remembered when doing purchases. This does not mean that there is a not message behind the commercial or that it is credible, in fact, there has to be an important message in order to be relevant and cause furor in social media and other medias.
Pantene´s intended audience is most likely women. They sell hair care products such as shampoos, conditioners and styling products that will most likely be purchased by women. Therefore, their message has to be something that will appeal to women but will also reflect in men. Almost every women in her life has encountered gender stereotypes that try to label them in any way, therefore, this message is important and powerful because any women will feel related and will feel happy for having a company such as Pantene defending them. Then, women will share the video, just as Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer of Facebook did, which was one of the main causes of expansion of their audience outside Philippines. After that, the video became viral, and behind sharing an important and powerful message, Pantene achieved their intended purpose of being present in the people´s mind.
Logos is a very common rhetorical strategy used by Pantene. Their systematic approach to show the labels against women in a workplace context consists of showing examples of the same situations but with different gender as the main role and showing the label that each gender gets in each situation. The seven situations shown are related to the workplace. In the first one, a man and a woman, professionally dressed, walk into an office and give orders to someone. The man is labeled as boss, which embraces the idea of a powerful person with leadership; while the woman is labeled as bossy, which only focuses on the fact that she gives orders. The next situation is what it seems to be political candidate, where the man is persuasive while the woman is pushy. In this scene the difference is more easily perceived because of the face expression and hand movements of each person. While the man is calm and only opens his hand twice, the woman is seems to be mad and moves her finger in ferocious way. This could be interpreted as the fact that there are not many women in politics and those who are, have to work harder and are often seen as pushy. The next examples of gender stereotype is a situation where a person is studying or working in a computer at night and in the same table there are baby products while the protagonists looks at the distance with a sad or worried expression, in the background the shadow of a baby toy labels the man as dedicated and the woman as selfish. This example addresses the stereotype that women should be in charge of taking care of the family while men should work and be the provider. Also, this example shows the difference between the genders because the man is seen as dedicated towards himself, while the woman is selfish towards her baby like if she could not do something good for herself. After that, a couple wash their faces and the man is perceived as neat, while the woman as vain. However, if the woman did not washed her face, she would be perceived as disheveled or someone who does not care of her image, which might be perceived even worse. Finally, a guy crossing the street while putting a suit on is seen as smooth, praised because he knows how to dress and look good and reflects his confidence. While the woman takes off her sweater and is seen as show off, as if she is trying to show off her figure, like if she had over confidence and felt better than everyone else.
Pantene uses pathos to evoke the audience’s emotions through the use of this same examples. Logos was stablished through the use of examples of real situations but pathos is established through the selection of what situations to display. As mentioned before, the audience is mostly women, therefore, the situations must apply to the most women possible and they must feel identified or moved with the situations in order to be successful. The first two scenes apply to every woman who has faced stereotypes while in a leadership position. They do not need to be a CEO or political candidate, any woman who has been in charge of giving orders either to family or friends, who has given her opinion on public issues or has been in a higher position than someone else can feel identified because they most likely have been compared to a man and have seen the different ways in how people see them such as bossy or pushy. The late work/study scene can be related to every woman who has considered having a family, which is most likely every one. This stereotype is so popular because the woman gives birth to the child and therefore she is expected to take care of the baby. Also, every woman is expected to marry and have a family. This is so popular that some people even see as wrong when women are single after their 40´s. Any woman will feel identified because, as every man, they have goals and aspirations to be successful but they are most likely to be stopped or doubted because society expects them to have a family as priority. The last two scenes are the ones where every single woman will feel identified with. These last two scenes are the most successful dealing with pathos and audiences emotions because they deal with beauty. Every woman has faced the gender stereotype or idea of that a woman`s most important quality is beauty. Since they were girls they have been surrounded by this expectation to be pretty but not show off how pretty they are. As Deborah Tannen mentions ´´There Is No Unmarked Women´´ because whatever a woman does has a reaction either good or bad and this scenes are trying to prove it. Every girl must have been labeled as vain, show off, or not taking enough care of herself at some point. These scenes were carefully selected to be as representative as possible of women, especially in workplace. Almost every woman will empathize with at least one of those women and will feel identified and supported, then they will share the video and Pantene would have accomplished their goal of going viral.
Pantene also uses other smaller details to appeal to the audience´s emotions that may not be noticeable at first sight but play a big role in the advertisement. The entire commercial there is a prominent use of soft colors with a little of black. Black and white are used only in the first scenes related to professional situations, but the soft colors represent the soft and delicate characteristic of the female. Also, the music is a cover made by a female singer from the song Mad World, which is originally by a male voice Gary Jules. The background music is calm throughout the scenes until the last scenes where the lyrics say repeat ``Mad world`` as if saying that the society is insane for labeling different each gender. Right at that moment there is a crescendo where the soft piano turns into a vivid melody and there are more instruments such as a violin that lead to an important moment which is the written text. The words in the advertisement one of the most important factors because they take the ideas that each viewer had from the past scenes and convey it into one main idea ´´Be strong and shine``. This is the moment when their intended audience will feel more empowered, where the soft colors and music turn more vivid and a support message is displayed. This is when they feel completely connected with the message. That is the reason why right after the text the hashtag #WhipIt and the word Pantene are displayed, to accomplish their goal. Pantene provides them an easy way to share the video with their hashtag that will go viral and will make the Pantene brand name more popular and therefore more commercial.
Ethos is established through the use of the company name. As mentioned before, their intended audience for their products are women, therefore, it is implicit that they must know about women, their needs and what they like. Since they are a company that sells products that make women feel good, they can talk about the problems that they face because women will realize that is a company that worries for them as tries to seek the best for them. They are credible because of their background as a company, however, they do not intend to be seen as experts or something similar because it is a very common problem discussed.
The strategies used by Pantene to sell their products are very effective. However, just because the intended purpose of a company is to sell their product, it does not mean that their message is important or real. The message delivered in ´´Labels Against Women´´ is very important because it shows a reality that most people see every day but are not aware of, especially men. Pantene uses very effective strategies to make this message the more appealing possible to people. They successfully picture the differences between labels between each gender in exact similar situations where the only difference are the protagonists. The scenes reflect a careful selection of situations to make the audience as broader as possible and the uses of colors, music and words capture the real and powerful message that with the use of their hashtag becomes viral and Pantene is able to benefit themselves while also benefiting people with a different perspective of a very important problem.
References
Pantene Philippines. (2013). Labels against Women. Philippines.
Kolasa-Hobeic, K. (2013). Analysing Campaign: ‘Labels against Women’ by Pantene Philippines. Retrieved from http://www.academia.edu/6569740/Analysing_Campaign_Labels_Against_Women_by_Pantene_Philippines Tannen, Deborah. “There Is No Unmarked Woman.” 1993. 6 Aug. 2006.
<http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/tannend/nyt062093.htm
It is important to understand that Pantene is a brand that sells shampoos and products for the hair care. The artifact media is a commercial that went viral on the internet obtaining more than 36 million views up to date. Before analyzing the strategies, we must first understand that it is a commercial and the main intended purpose is to sell a product. However, in the video, there are no shampoo bottles or recommendations of the product displayed. Because their strategy consists of sharing a powerful message that will be popular among their intended audience and cause the brand name to be more popular and therefore more likely to be remembered when doing purchases. This does not mean that there is a not message behind the commercial or that it is credible, in fact, there has to be an important message in order to be relevant and cause furor in social media and other medias.
Pantene´s intended audience is most likely women. They sell hair care products such as shampoos, conditioners and styling products that will most likely be purchased by women. Therefore, their message has to be something that will appeal to women but will also reflect in men. Almost every women in her life has encountered gender stereotypes that try to label them in any way, therefore, this message is important and powerful because any women will feel related and will feel happy for having a company such as Pantene defending them. Then, women will share the video, just as Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer of Facebook did, which was one of the main causes of expansion of their audience outside Philippines. After that, the video became viral, and behind sharing an important and powerful message, Pantene achieved their intended purpose of being present in the people´s mind.
Logos is a very common rhetorical strategy used by Pantene. Their systematic approach to show the labels against women in a workplace context consists of showing examples of the same situations but with different gender as the main role and showing the label that each gender gets in each situation. The seven situations shown are related to the workplace. In the first one, a man and a woman, professionally dressed, walk into an office and give orders to someone. The man is labeled as boss, which embraces the idea of a powerful person with leadership; while the woman is labeled as bossy, which only focuses on the fact that she gives orders. The next situation is what it seems to be political candidate, where the man is persuasive while the woman is pushy. In this scene the difference is more easily perceived because of the face expression and hand movements of each person. While the man is calm and only opens his hand twice, the woman is seems to be mad and moves her finger in ferocious way. This could be interpreted as the fact that there are not many women in politics and those who are, have to work harder and are often seen as pushy. The next examples of gender stereotype is a situation where a person is studying or working in a computer at night and in the same table there are baby products while the protagonists looks at the distance with a sad or worried expression, in the background the shadow of a baby toy labels the man as dedicated and the woman as selfish. This example addresses the stereotype that women should be in charge of taking care of the family while men should work and be the provider. Also, this example shows the difference between the genders because the man is seen as dedicated towards himself, while the woman is selfish towards her baby like if she could not do something good for herself. After that, a couple wash their faces and the man is perceived as neat, while the woman as vain. However, if the woman did not washed her face, she would be perceived as disheveled or someone who does not care of her image, which might be perceived even worse. Finally, a guy crossing the street while putting a suit on is seen as smooth, praised because he knows how to dress and look good and reflects his confidence. While the woman takes off her sweater and is seen as show off, as if she is trying to show off her figure, like if she had over confidence and felt better than everyone else.
Pantene uses pathos to evoke the audience’s emotions through the use of this same examples. Logos was stablished through the use of examples of real situations but pathos is established through the selection of what situations to display. As mentioned before, the audience is mostly women, therefore, the situations must apply to the most women possible and they must feel identified or moved with the situations in order to be successful. The first two scenes apply to every woman who has faced stereotypes while in a leadership position. They do not need to be a CEO or political candidate, any woman who has been in charge of giving orders either to family or friends, who has given her opinion on public issues or has been in a higher position than someone else can feel identified because they most likely have been compared to a man and have seen the different ways in how people see them such as bossy or pushy. The late work/study scene can be related to every woman who has considered having a family, which is most likely every one. This stereotype is so popular because the woman gives birth to the child and therefore she is expected to take care of the baby. Also, every woman is expected to marry and have a family. This is so popular that some people even see as wrong when women are single after their 40´s. Any woman will feel identified because, as every man, they have goals and aspirations to be successful but they are most likely to be stopped or doubted because society expects them to have a family as priority. The last two scenes are the ones where every single woman will feel identified with. These last two scenes are the most successful dealing with pathos and audiences emotions because they deal with beauty. Every woman has faced the gender stereotype or idea of that a woman`s most important quality is beauty. Since they were girls they have been surrounded by this expectation to be pretty but not show off how pretty they are. As Deborah Tannen mentions ´´There Is No Unmarked Women´´ because whatever a woman does has a reaction either good or bad and this scenes are trying to prove it. Every girl must have been labeled as vain, show off, or not taking enough care of herself at some point. These scenes were carefully selected to be as representative as possible of women, especially in workplace. Almost every woman will empathize with at least one of those women and will feel identified and supported, then they will share the video and Pantene would have accomplished their goal of going viral.
Pantene also uses other smaller details to appeal to the audience´s emotions that may not be noticeable at first sight but play a big role in the advertisement. The entire commercial there is a prominent use of soft colors with a little of black. Black and white are used only in the first scenes related to professional situations, but the soft colors represent the soft and delicate characteristic of the female. Also, the music is a cover made by a female singer from the song Mad World, which is originally by a male voice Gary Jules. The background music is calm throughout the scenes until the last scenes where the lyrics say repeat ``Mad world`` as if saying that the society is insane for labeling different each gender. Right at that moment there is a crescendo where the soft piano turns into a vivid melody and there are more instruments such as a violin that lead to an important moment which is the written text. The words in the advertisement one of the most important factors because they take the ideas that each viewer had from the past scenes and convey it into one main idea ´´Be strong and shine``. This is the moment when their intended audience will feel more empowered, where the soft colors and music turn more vivid and a support message is displayed. This is when they feel completely connected with the message. That is the reason why right after the text the hashtag #WhipIt and the word Pantene are displayed, to accomplish their goal. Pantene provides them an easy way to share the video with their hashtag that will go viral and will make the Pantene brand name more popular and therefore more commercial.
Ethos is established through the use of the company name. As mentioned before, their intended audience for their products are women, therefore, it is implicit that they must know about women, their needs and what they like. Since they are a company that sells products that make women feel good, they can talk about the problems that they face because women will realize that is a company that worries for them as tries to seek the best for them. They are credible because of their background as a company, however, they do not intend to be seen as experts or something similar because it is a very common problem discussed.
The strategies used by Pantene to sell their products are very effective. However, just because the intended purpose of a company is to sell their product, it does not mean that their message is important or real. The message delivered in ´´Labels Against Women´´ is very important because it shows a reality that most people see every day but are not aware of, especially men. Pantene uses very effective strategies to make this message the more appealing possible to people. They successfully picture the differences between labels between each gender in exact similar situations where the only difference are the protagonists. The scenes reflect a careful selection of situations to make the audience as broader as possible and the uses of colors, music and words capture the real and powerful message that with the use of their hashtag becomes viral and Pantene is able to benefit themselves while also benefiting people with a different perspective of a very important problem.
References
Pantene Philippines. (2013). Labels against Women. Philippines.
Kolasa-Hobeic, K. (2013). Analysing Campaign: ‘Labels against Women’ by Pantene Philippines. Retrieved from http://www.academia.edu/6569740/Analysing_Campaign_Labels_Against_Women_by_Pantene_Philippines Tannen, Deborah. “There Is No Unmarked Woman.” 1993. 6 Aug. 2006.
<http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/tannend/nyt062093.htm