Appealing to a Different Audience

By Joshua P. Larson

The following is a rhetorical analysis of two commercials broadcast over television and the Internet. The commercials are produced by a major computer company, one that is reputable for good advertising. One commercial is geared towards an English-speaking American audience while the other is geared toward a Latino audience. Throughout the analysis, we will make distinctions between the two commercials and determine possible reasons for the differences.

Apple, a computer company which had previously announced the release of their music-organizing software iTunes, announced on 23 October 2001 that it was to release a portable music player, named the iPod. The iPod slowly gained popularity as Apple released newer and newer versions of the product, expanding storage and increasing user-friendliness. Sales finally skyrocketed and continue to do so as the company keeps innovating and appealing to a wide audience (Lloyd).

On 1 November 2006 Apple launched iTunes Latino, an online store offering hundreds of Latino and international music and video tracks (Apple P1). For Latino and international customers, this meant that their favorite purchasable music and videos would be in a separate, more accessible section of the online store. To accompany the launch of the iTunes Latino store, Apple launched a new television commercial exposing the new feature. The ad ran alongside another iTunes commercial which was released to an English-speaking American audience at an earlier date; both ads were 30 seconds long and featured colored, contrasted, dancing silhouettes, visibly listening to their white, glistening iPods. The commercials, however, showed definite signs of contrast.

The commercials, which were available for some time at Apple’s website and are still floating around on YouTube, each feature a song to which the silhouettes dance. The English-speaking American commercial features a song by the Fratellis entitled “Flathead” while the Latino commercial features the Kumbia Kings song “Pachuco” (27 iPod Ads).

The first notable difference in the two songs is that “Flathead” is in English while “Pachuco” is in Spanish. The song choice reflects Apple’s desired audience for the commercials: the Latino commercial relates to Spanish-speaking audiences while the English-speaking American commercial relates to any English-speaking audience. This language difference seems also to expose Apple’s desired company image for each audience: to a viewer of the Latino commercial, Apple seems like a company providing individualized service to the Latino audience, but to a viewer of the English-speaking American commercial, Apple seems like a company serving a wide audience with many ethnicities.

The next aesthetically appealing and pathos-laden factor in both advertisements is the color balance. In the English-speaking American commercial, we are presented with a solid black background, intruded by an increasing number of see-through, pale-colored dancing individuals. The individuals, being transparent, eventually overlap each other, forming new hues and defying natural vision cues by making larger figures appear behind the smaller ones. In comparison, the Latino commercial displays a plethora of vibrant background colors which are contrasted by black-silhouetted dancers. The difference in colors suggests, once again, a difference in desired audiences. The English-speaking American commercial displays people of different colors, suggesting mixed ethnicities. The fact that the characters join together and overlap each other suggests a mixed culture and environment. This also supports the idea of solidarity among the mixed American population and give Apple a unifying image. Conversely, the Latino ad displaying people of the same color, solely framed in each shot against vibrant backgrounds, suggests a single [Latino] individual interacting in a common home environment – Latin America.

Other factors alluding to cultural differences arise in the appearance of text and actions of the dancing figures. Both commercials are text-free until the last half of screen duration. The English-speaking American ad only displays the text, “iPod + iTunes,” and ends with an Apple logo, while the Latino ad displays somewhat earlier, “Tu ritmo,” meaning ‘your rhythm,’ “Tu música,” meaning ‘your music,’ “Tu iPod,” translating to ‘your iPod,” and finally, “iPod + iTunes,” capped off by an Apple logo at the end. It seems evident that the goal of the Latino ad was to individualize Apple and iTunes. With the exclusion of English, the single black foreground color, the sole figure in each shot, and the textually suggested audience-ownership of the companies products in the Latino ad suggests that the audience should be Latinos who want a personal experience with the company. This contrasts to the English-speaking American ad, which seems to suggest that the audience should treat the company as a shared cultural experience, due to the overlapping characters and mixed colors. The individualized and unified theme also seems to be present in the manner in which the figures are dancing in the Latino ad. The figures dance in a much more stylistic and traditional manner than the American ad, where it almost seems that the figures are jumping around, leading to a jumbled mess at the end. The stylistic dance suggests a shared single heritage, in a way stressing individuality within that spectrum, or discouraging venture into shared, mixed cultures. This theme also runs concurrently with the language barrier theme.

Apple enforces a unified company image to a certain extent; both commercials feature a dance party theme with silhouettes and a recognizable background song. Both commercials make the iPod and earbud attachments very visible by coloring them solid white, and make it clear that the figures are, indeed, listening to an iPod for their source of joy and entertainment. The English-speaking American ad displays the iPod in an almost subliminal way when a figure leaps across the screen, iPod attached to belt, making the last frame of the “dance party” video end with a white iPod visible dead-center on the screen. Finally, the Apple logo presented at the end of each ad signifies that Apple has a solid, unchanging logo. This establishes firm credibility of the company, especially across such a wide array of viewers.

These culturally diverse commercials don’t escape the cliché of standard product- and company image-centered ads, but they do make a solid statement as to who the desired audience is and as to what message they want to send. Apple definitely makes an effort to solidify its company image in the minds of two different audiences by making changes in their commercials. The ads seem to be quite effective, and undoubtedly contribute to Apple’s blossoming success.

Works Cited

“27 iPod Ads On Video With Lyrics. (Complete List).” iPoor. 2007. iPoor. 19 Oct 2007. <http://ipoor.org/ipod.html>.

“Apple Announces iTunes Latino On The iTunes Store.” Apple. 1 Nov 2006. Apple. 15 Oct 2007. <http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2006/nov/01ituneslatino.html>.

“iTunes Latino Ad.” Commercial. YouTube. 29 Oct 2007. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PoQ2Ru6OFw>.

Lloyd, Dennis. “Instant Expert: A Brief History of the iPod.” iLounge. 26 June 2004. iLounge. 15 Oct 2007. <http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/instant-expert-a-brief-history-of- ipod/>.

“New Apple iPod + iTunes Ad 2: Flathead by The Fratellis.” Commercial. YouTube. 29 Oct 2007. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS1RotfF_20>.