Humor in Arguments

This week our reading in Everything’s an Argument was about humor in arguments, and in class we have been discussing the obesity epidemic. These two seem like they are hard to connect, since there isn’t a whole lot that is humorous about the obesity epidemic. I quickly thought of commercials for weight loss products though. I know that humor is often times used in commercials. I thought of one commercial in particular that is an advertising Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain bars. It shows people eating cinnamon rolls and donuts, and then shows the food sticking to their body, like fat. It is saying that if you eat the bad foods you will gain weight, but if you eat a Nutri-Grain bar you will not. On page 396 of Everything’s An Argument it say, “Humor can simply make people pay attention or feel good – or make them want to buy stuff or do what others ask.” In this commercial the humor makes the audience pay attention, and tries to make the audience want to buy their product. For the beginning of the commercial, the audience is confused about the point of the commercial, but then the first girl walks way and has cinnamon rolls stuck behind her. This definitely makes the audience pay attention to the commercial and wonder what it is going to be for. Then they show the Nutri-Grain bars, which encourages the audience to want to eat those instead of the donut that will get stuck around their waist. The Kellogg’s company used humor in their commercial to grab the audience’s attention and to make them interested enough in the ad to find out what it is for. It convinces them that the only way that they won’t have breakfast pastries stuck to them is to eat Nutri-Grain bars.Here is a link to a video of the commercial:     http://www.clipland.com/Live/video/4932