While some people may argue that other sports are more important or that more people watch a certain sport, it is undeniable that the Super Bowl attracts a significant amount of viewers. The Denver Business Journal stated that "Some 167 million viewers -- more than half the population of the United States -- watched some part of Sunday's Super Bowl 50 between the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers." While many people would argue that they watch the Super Bowl for the exciting game, USA Today collected a survey of 1,000 people that showed "78 percent of Americans (up from 59 percent in 2011) look forward to Super Bowl commercials more than the game." These numbers may or may not come as shocking to some readers, but the article goes on to say that "70 percent of Americans will focus on the ads before the game." According to Fortune Magazine, the cost of a 30-second Super Bowl ad sold for $5 million dollars. With that being said, companies who choose to buy air time during the Super Bowl do the best that they can to persuade the viewers to use their product. This paper is going to be analyzing the T-Mobile commercial starring Steve Harvey and how it uses logos, pathos, and ethos and causing people to want to begin using their cell phone service. 

It seems that cell phone providers are always creating new commercials that take a jab at one another, saying things like "our service reaches 4 times as many people as Sprint and T-Mobile combined." Then a week later, T-Mobile and Sprint will come out with ads saying why their service is better than Verizon and AT&T's. Sure, some ads may seem convincing, but how does the viewer know what to believe. Logos, or the logistics of a commercial is one of 3 key ways that companies try to persuade consumers to use their product. Originally, Verizon put out a commercial stating that in the nation's largest independent study, they put out a survey asking which cell phone provider had the best service across the country. It goes on by showing how many more colorful balls Verizon had than AT&T and then at the end threw a little jab at T-Mobile by showing how their service was not preferred over other companies. During the Super Bowl, T-Mobile released their response commercial to Verizon. The claim they made was that the numbers used in the survey that Verizon put out are outdated and, therefore, untrue anymore. The ad goes on by saying that "T-Mobile doubled their LTE coverage in the last year, and with more LTE towers than Verizon, T-Mobile reaches pretty much everyone they do." Logically speaking, if one cell phone company provides the same quality of service, then why would a consumer stay with one provider (Verizon) if it is more expensive? According to T-Mobile's website, their most popular plan  --  including unlimited calling and texting with 5GB worth of online data usage  --  is $65 plus tax. On the other hand, Verizon's plan that is most similar to T-Mobile's, includes unlimited calling and texting, as well as 3GB of data. The cost of Verizon's plan is $65 plus taxes. To a consumer, this ad has made their choice simple now by pointing out that the two companies provide the same coverage, at the same price, but Verizon doesn't allow as much data usage as T-Mobile does. 

The second part of a commercial that companies base their commercials around is pathos. Pathos is the emotional attachment tied to the advertisement. In this specific ad, humor is what is meant to grab the viewer's attention and persuade them into using T-Mobile's cell phone service. To preface the commercial, Steve Harvey, was the host of the Miss Universe pageant in 2015. At the end of the contest, Harvey declared Miss Columbia as Miss Universe when in fact, he read the card wrong and Miss Philippines was the true winner of Miss Universe. In the commercial, Harvey opens up the same way as he did in the Miss Universe pageant by saying, "Whoa whoa, listen folks, I have to apologize, again." Then at the end of the commercial, Harvey comically states, "I'm not taking responsibility on this one, uh uh Verizon got it wrong! Not me! Yes!" Many people love this type of humor, especially when it comes to Super Bowl ads. The thing about this ad, is that the humor immediately grabs your attention, then it feeds you the information that you need in order to know that T-Mobile is the better choice, and then concludes with humor as well. 

Lastly, ethos is the credibility that the commercial carries with itself. If the viewer watches a commercial that has no credibility to it, then they are immediately going to lose interest in whatever the company has to offer. In this specific case, Steve Harvey carries credibility with him simply because he is a celebrity, he is funny, and the American public tend to buy into things that meet one or both of those criteria. This immediately grabs the audience's attention and gets them tuned into the commercial because they know who Steve Harvey is, they view him as someone reputable and credible, and they can at least expect to get a laugh out of the commercial. As a company, T-Mobile really gains the respect from the viewer as not only verbally, but visually, they see that T-Mobile's service is by far the best choice in terms of which cell phone provider they should choose. 

In conclusion, the usage of logos (logistics), pathos (emotions), and ethos (credibility) are three main keys of success when it comes to persuading the consumer to use your product over the competitor's. Logically, it makes sense for a consumer to switch, or begin using T-Mobile if they provide the same quality of a service at a cheaper price. Emotionally, the humor grabs the viewer's attention immediately, and then feeds the information to them persuading them to use their product. Finally, the credibility of the commercial, as well as the company plays a major role because if nobody believed what the ad is saying, then there is not a chance that they would use the product. 

