Khan 1 Maha Khan Dr. Erin Dietel-McLaughlin Multimedia Writing & Rhetoric 5 October 2012 Madonna vs.

Minaj: How Pepsi Utilizes Them Marketing is a form of rhetoric that must change according to the times or the message it is trying to send becomes ineffective. Over the years, Pepsi has grown into a marketing monster casting the most sought-after celebrities and exemplifying the desires of different audiences. By using similar rhetorical strategies in both the 1989 Madonna commercial and the 2012 Nicki Minaj commercial, Pepsi consistently attracts its customers. Even though these two commercials were released over two decades apart, they use identical rhetorical strategies to utilize features such as time, lyrics and celebrities, to send different, well-timed messages to their respective audiences and effectively sell their product. Both Pepsi commercials utilize the construct of time in their rhetoric to shape the reaction they want from their audiences. In 1989, Pepsi released a commercial featuring Madonna and her new release at the time, Like A Prayer. It starts off with Madonna watching a video of her eighth birthday with Like A Prayer playing in the background. The scene switches as eight year old Madonna is now watching her future self. Madonna starts performing her song and the ad constantly flashes back and forth between the two different Madonnas, often showing the older Madonna in places that eight year old Madonna would have visited, for instance her elementary school. We finally come back to Madonna sipping Pepsi and watching her eight year old self blow out candles. The ad ends with Pepsis logo and three words A GENERATION AHEAD. The Madonna commercial can be taken in two ways either the old Madonna looking at her past or the young Madonna looking at her future. Either way, we get a sense that Pepsi

Khan 2 has been an entity throughout Madonnas life. She takes a sip of Pepsi at her eighth birthday, the Pepsi logo lights up as she dances across a diner, and she watches her old self with a Pepsi can by her side. This, along with the words A GENERATION AHEAD, portrays Pepsi as a lifelong companion; it was there when Madonna had nothing and it is still there after Madonna has achieved everything. When Madonna tells her eight year old self to make a wish and then takes a sip of Pepsi towards the end of the commercial, it seems as if the character of Madonna is indicating that her wish was to be where she is right now with Pepsi by her side. Some might say that her wish is referring to her stardom, but throughout the essay what entity is constantly shown alongside her fame? Pepsi! In 1989, the world was rapidly developing new technologies such as the Internet. Therefore, it makes sense for Pepsi to sell itself as something that its audience can rely on while everything else around them changes. In 2012, Pepsi released a commercial featuring Nicki Minaj and her song, Moment 4 Life. The Minaj commercial uses the concept of time but it gives it a very different twist. Instead of showing flashbacks, like in the Madonna commercial, the Minaj commercial freezes time. A boy and a girl, probably in their twenties, sip Pepsi as they run across various frozen scenes. They finally reach Minaj, frozen in concert, and the boy and girl open two new cans of Pepsi. Minaj unfreezes, as do the other scenes, and the partying continues as the boy and girl jump into the crowd with Pepsi cans in their hands. The ad ends as the words, LIVE FOR NOW, flash across the screen. The Minaj commercial freezes time, portraying that Pepsi allows us to LIVE FOR NOW as the words at the end of the commercial indicate. These words are essential in conveying the pause in time as a rhetorical feature for this commercial. Instead of establishing Pepsi as a permanent feature of peoples lives, it urges people to get up and drink Pepsi. Now that Pepsi has established its foundation for the future, it has turned its focus onto the present by addressing the current, impulsive generation. We

Khan 3 are the generation ahead. We are the generation that Pepsi was planning for in the Madonna commercial. In this commercial, Pepsi wants us to get up and grab a Pepsi. The Minaj commercial is a call to act upon our impulses. These two Pepsi commercials use flashbacks and frozen time as rhetorical strategies to indicate the message that Pepsi is presenting. Just like the construct of time is used to convey distinct messages in different years, the construct of language can be rhetorically manipulated in the same way. Many modern critics underestimate the power of language. For example, in the statement, Lets stop talking and do something, James Herrick claims, We may be misleading ourselves regarding languages great power to shape our thinking and, thus, our actions (19). These two Pepsi commercials use the power of lyrics to rhetorically make appeals to their audiences. The Madonna and Nicki Minaj commercials do this in two different ways. Herrick explains the two methods that appeals are used to persuade an audience are, To elicit an emotion or to engage the audiences loyalties or commitments (13). The Madonna commercial focuses more on engaging the audiences loyalties and commitments. While it is true that Madonnas commercials aim is to touch the emotions of its audience, its greater role is to convince people to get onboard the Pepsi train. The lyrics in the beginning of the commercial say, Everyone must stand alone. I hear you call my name and it feels like home. Right after these two sentences are sung, a shot of Madonna dancing through the streets appears with the Pepsi logo flashing on the window of a diner in the background. Those who listen to Madonnas songs have probably associated her lyrics with certain emotions which Pepsi is trying to elicit. The lyrics are being used to show the readers that with Pepsi you always feel good and it should always be by your side. While the lyrics of the Madonna commercial focus on setting a foundation for Pepsi, the Minaj commercial uses lyrics to elicit emotion since the audiences commitment to Pepsi has already been established. I wish that I could have this moment for life, generates a

Khan 4 sudden need to listen to Minajs words and live in the moment and drink Pepsi right then and there. These lyrics are sung as soon as the two actors take their sips of Pepsi and all the scenes unfreeze. Herrick claims, Arrangement refers to the planned ordering of a message to achieve the greatest effect (14). Indeed in this case, the maximum effect of the lyrics is portrayed because of their placement at the climax of the commercial. Minaj also sings, Ive waited all my life for this, showing that since Pepsi is now a stable product and it has been established as a partner in life, the wait is over and now is the time to drink. Through the current generations obsession with Twitter, text messaging and other instantaneous technologies, Pepsi realizes the current generations impulsive nature and it uses that to lure viewers into buying Pepsi today, not tomorrow. Herrick explains, Rhetoric is also a form of psychological power, that is, the power to shape the thinking of other people (19). Pepsi does an impeccable job of using lyrics to psychologically shape the viewers thoughts about Pepsi. Via lyrics, Pepsi emotionally appeals to its audience and dictates the mindset that it wants associated with Pepsi. The lyrics sung in these two commercials are essential, but would they have the same effect if anyone other than Madonna or Nicki Minaj were singing? As Courtney MacNeil writes in Orality, The question is not of whether, but rather of how the oral and textual are integrated. In these commercials, the textual part is the lyrics and the oral part is the singers. The rhetoric associated with these celebrities is another essential factor in establishing the message that Pepsi is trying to portray. By 1989, Madonna had been a constant presence in the Hollywood industry for about a decade. Madonna was the epitome of coolness and therefore, everything Madonna did was considered cool. Since Pepsi was looking to set a foundation for future generations, who better to choose than the woman who had recently created solid ground for herself? The Wikibooks article we read for class disagreed, I wouldnt buy a soft drink just because Madonna endorses it. This case can perhaps be made

Khan 5 for athletic equipment or instruments in which athletes and musicians respectively have expertise in the area and therefore can endorse those products. In the case of Pepsi, there is no famous expert on soft drinks that the world looks up to. So, Pepsi chose the woman whose life best fits Pepsis message. The ideals associated with a celebrity are also rhetorically utilized in Minajs commercial to highlight the young, unique and crazy generation. Nicki Minajs flamboyant clothing and one-of-a-kind hairstyles summarize Pepsis new image very well. As an artist who has recently made it big, Minaj is the perfect candidate to communicate to this impulsive generation that there is no need to think about choosing Pepsi. Minaj is the epitome of a young, hip woman living for the moment. Nicki Minajs outgoing personality portrayed in her music videos is what this generation is attracted to. Taking into account MacNeils idea of the spoken within the spoken we see that because of the aura that surrounds Minaj, she is the best fit for Pepsis twenty first century message. This strengthens the point that picking the right celebrity is crucial in order for the company to portray the correct message. Despite this, some might disagree saying that the time, lyrics and celebrities used in these two commercials serve the same purpose regardless of the varying times they were released in. Looking at these commercials in depth should reveal that even though the rhetoric used is similar, Pepsi intended for these techniques to represent very different sides of it. In 1989, Pepsis audience would not have accepted the words LIVE FOR NOW so well because Pepsi was not as well established. It was a sophisticated soft drink served at elegant dinners or drunk while watching television as Madonnas commercial shows. If Madonna was put in 2012s commercial the modern image that Pepsi was trying to convey would have been reversed. Though Madonna is still an extremely popular artist, her image as a singer is a traditional one with a solid foundation whereas Nicki Minaj is dominating the music industry

Khan 6 with her fun and current songs. These examples show that time, lyrics and celebrities sent very different messages for Pepsi in 1989 and 2012. Through these three rhetorical strategies Pepsi has managed to send two different messages in both commercials. The message in the Madonna commercial is one of building a life long partnership with Pepsi. On the other hand, the message in the Nicki Minaj commercial is one of satisfying the present urge to drink Pepsi. It is important for us to become educated consumers in order to distinguish what companies are trying to communicate. Understanding the use of different types of rhetorical strategies is essential in a world where the misuse of rhetoric is no stranger. As Stephanie Vie warns us in (E)dentity, The ads are derived from portions of your (e)dentity and targeted to what the system believes you might be interested in (1). Pepsi has taken our identities and used them to attract us to their product. In times where our (e)dentities are in public view and companies know exactly what we are interested in, it is important to remember that a companys survival is dependent on catering to our interests to reel us into their products. As educated consumers we should be aware of the rhetoric used in commercials so we can intelligently decided whether the product being advocated is worth our money. I, myself, was a victim of Pepsis rhetorical deceit as I watched Minajs commercial. I grabbed a Pepsi after watching the commercial with the idea that somehow I would feel as alive as the two characters in the commercial. Pepsi has mastered the art of rhetoric.

Khan 7 Works Cited Herrick, James. An Overview of Rhetoric. The History and Theory of Rhetoric. 2nd ed. Ed. sssssJames Herrick. Needham Heights: Allyn & Bacon, 2001. 10-20. Print. MacNeil, Courtney. Orality. The Chicago School of Media Theory. Web. 25 September sssss2012. Rhetoric and Composition/Rhetoric Analysis. Wikibooks. n.p., n.d. Web. 29 September sssss2012. Vie, Stephanie. Introduction: Your (E)dentity. (E)dentity. Ed. Stephanie Vie. Southlake: sssssFountainhead Press, 2012. 1-4. Print.