Rhetorical anyalsis - etrade commercial

In this commercial etrade first appeals to pathos, by presenting two adorable babies with Mellody Hobbson who are talking and explaining to her what are stocks versus bonds. Automatically you get drawn in by these two cute talking babies who know more about taxes than the adult does and the baby greeting Mellody by saying “ Mellody Hobbson whats poppin baby” also appealing to humor.

Throughout the commercial Mellody asks the babies advice on her presentation of stocks versus bonds and one baby starts trying to have a conversation with Mellody but the other baby Benny hits on her by saying “I think you’re so pretty” which also is very humorous. She then goes on to ask what a stock is and they answer with the correct term also using ethos to show that even though there just babies there is truth in what they are saying. The baby then explains that buying a stock is like buying a part of a large company and Mellody then compares it to having a cart on a large choo-choo train bring back to what she thinks the babies would probably know and play with. Both babies get sort of offended that she thinks that they are that young that they play with train sets and how young she thinks they are.  But she is in fact right of her assumption when she pulls out a bio on the baby and reveals that he is only fourteen and half months old.

The they decide to move on and he talks about how it is basically about buying and selling stocks at the right time which is pretty much what etrade does, making it simplier and appealing to logos that doing things on etrade are very logical and so easy and baby can explain it. He even uses an example of buying his friend Benny’s stock. And again appealing to pathos instead of talking about the stock Benny talks about how he wore his sweater vest to impress Mellody. But the other baby takes the conversation back to again talk about buying corporate bonds which you can also do on etrade. He answers most questions that one would normally have about bonds. Making it even more adorable when he gets interrupted by his smart phone ringing and presumably talking to another woman.

Lastly using humor through pathos, the commercial ends with Benny trying one last ditch effort on Mellody by singing her a song.