Rhetorical Analysis: Forget A Smart Golf Ball

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“Forget A Smart Golf Ball You Can’t Lose, OnCore Has ‘Genius Ball’ That Runs $50 Per Sleeve”. While not the sexiest title, this article/advertisement on forbes.com written by Erik Matuszewski is about a rather interesting advancement in golf technology. The article explains how OnCore, a premier company in the golfing realm known for their innovative golf ball technology, is taking steps to making one of the smartest golf balls in the game today. Within the article is a video advertisement for this new technology. This intelligent new ball is to be called, “The Genius Ball”. OnCore, along with other companies, has been producing golf balls with GPS’s in the interior of the golf balls but they decided that they weren’t going to stop there. …show more content…

It starts out with the classic “have you ever” question you hear on almost all infomercials. The spokesman says, “have you ever wondered how far your ball went?” and quite comically the next clip is of him hitting the ball maybe a yard. I think this is better advertising than being completely serious for the whole ad because if you make the audience laugh you have established a connection and the person watching may be more inclined to hear what you have to say. The video is shot on a golf course and the man talking is dressed in official looking golf clothes wearing the OnCore brand which makes sense. In one part of the video the spokesperson is explaining about how with the Genius Ball you can calculate how far you hit your ball and the distance to the hole from where your ball is. He then says, “bye bye $400 range finder.” This is a very good use of rhetoric and very much appeals to logos because it is more logical to buy a ball that costs $25 and can tell you how far away you are from the green than to buy a $400 range finder to calculate yardage. Later on in the video we are exposed to an appeal to ethos. The spokesperson is talking about how much the Genius Ball is going to improve your golf game and at the same time clips of professional golfers and their swings. This gives the audience a sense of credibility. If the professionals are using these products, then it must work right? The advertisement even appeals to our emotions by describing and listing all of the prizes and giveaways that will go to the backers of this product, meaning that the company is taking donations to cover the start-up cost of this new technological advance in the golf world. Donating sometimes makes people feel like they are a part of something and it makes them feel good to donate to a cause so

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