Lindsey Hogan
English 111: Rough Draft
Professor Strickland
9/27/2010
Do You Dare
Britney Spears is a world-wide sex symbol. She exudes sexuality in her songs, music videos, movies and advertisements. The brand she sells revolves around sensuality and promiscuity. Curious, her fragrance, does not deviate from her well-known imagine. The promotional advertisement’s for her fragrance projects images of sex appeal and heart-pounding romance with a model-status hunk. The use of sex and the status of Britney Spears as a role model for young women appeals to the audience of teen girls. In this rhetorical situation the use of techniques that apply to the speaker, the audience, the style, and the evidence make the ad convincing to young women that buying Curious will enhance their appeal to boys.
The commercial begins with Britney Spears approaching a hotel door where she innocently makes eye contact with a gorgeous, clean-cut young man. An orchestra of tantalizing music from an a compilation of light, airy instruments begins as both, Spears and the young man, maintain eye contact and open their hotel doors simultaneously. Spears’ is shown in the hotel room sitting on the bed, staring at the connecting door between the two rooms; then it flashes to the young man’s room where he, too, is looking curiously towards the connecting door. Britney Spears stands up and walks over to the door; as she does so the music becomes faster. She reaches her hands timidly toward the door and leans against it. The music becomes rapid. Images bombard the audience: glossed lips, lightening, hands against a dripping window, blooming flowers, the young man, Spears biting her lower lip, a little girl making dolls kiss, Spears and the young man about to passionately kiss, back-scratching sex, Spears running towards the bed in just a sheet, a love struck cartoon girl, hands gripping the sheets in ecstasy, a do not disturb door-knob sign swaying, bull riders, a nude man and woman tangled together, waves crashing, and Spears laughing. The flashing images end; both, Spears and the young man are shown, aroused by the sexual tension backing away from the connecting door. The screen focus on Spears face, and then blurs as Spears’ voice provocatively utters, “Do you dare”. Then a picture of the Curious bottle appears with a black back drop and the words ‘Curious. Britney Spears. A New Fragrance.’.
[Connector]
Curious’ audience is…
[[DEVELOPE]]
[Connector]
The purpose of the speaker, in this rhetoric, is to appeal to the audiences emotions (pathos) and involve the audience in the passion shown in the advertisement; this establishes a memorable connection for the audience between sex appeal and the fragrance. The speakers are: the symphony (for the majority of the advertisement) and Britney Spears. The symphony’s role as a speaker in the commercial is to manipulate the audience’s emotions as the images are shown. The music begins slow and calming and then as the intensity between Spears and the young man increases so does the pace and fervency of the music; which, in turn, plays into the assumed increase in the audiences heart beat and breathing as the scenes become more passionate. As the intensity plateaus and the music along with it, Spears’ voice is heard whispering, in a seductive tone, “Do you dare”.
[Connector]
Spears, as a speaker, appeals to the audience because she serves as a celebrity testimony. Since Curious is being portrayed as a product associated with sexuality, it makes sense that Spears appropriately fits the celebrity testimony that
[[DEVELOPE]]
[Connector]
The style/structure of the advertisement appeals to the audience’s logic (logos). The commercial is organized in a progressive fashion. It begins with Britney innocently entering a hotel room and spotting a cute guy; much like a teen girl might in the halls at school. Then, Spears is shown wondering about the cute guy in the next room; similarly to the thought process of a young girl with a crush. Next, images of what could happen between Spears and the guy occupying the next room are flashed rapidly across the screen. Between the scenes of Spears with this guy are images of nature taking its coarse (i.e. flowers blooming, lightening, etc.) and young girls dreaming of love and romance (i.e. little girl with dolls, cartoon girl who has fallen in love, etc.). This, easily looked over, detail is key in appealing to the audience because subconsciously these images are associating Curious with growing up out of innocence and blooming into a young sexually desired woman who is no longer an naive child.
[[CONCLUSION]]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZElUMthBPI
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