. The joy of being young and full of life is something most people wish they could revisit. People long to return to that time of liveliness. The same is true in the new commercial for the Audi R8 that was aired during the 50th Super Bowl. The commercial shows a retired astronaut in his older years, thinking back to when he was younger and still flying into space. His son shows up and takes his father out to his Audi R8 and lets the father drive. As he presses the ignitionthe scene shifts between, memories of him taking off in a spaceship. Throughout the commercial, David Bowie's Starman is playing. Audi's credibility (ethos) as a company being known for its luxury brand cars and reliability is able to shy away from giving you statistics of their cars and aim more towards emotions in their commercials. This is how they presented their commercial on Sunday. Audi used a combination of mainly pathos, or emotions, and some logos, or logic, to help advertise for their new car, the R8.

The commercial acts on the viewers emotions when it shows the older man sitting in his house. He is surrounded by pieces of history that he was a part of. We also gather he is depressed or suffering from some illness due to him not eating his dinner. This plays on the person viewing the commercial's emotions because we all have grandparents, whether we know them or not. People would think that the same scenario could be true or could happen to their grandparents. Most people don't enjoy to see their family in pain or in a negative state of mind. It also takes aim at people who tend to be more self-focused. It plants the idea that this could one day happen to any of us, where we are no longer happy and think back to our glory days. It causes the thought that you'll need something to remind you of those days when you were younger. With this immediate emotional appeal, it pulls you into the commercial. You become invested and want to find out what happens to the older man. 

When the son shows up, he decides to try and help his father become happier, if only for a little while. When the son takes his father out to his car, he becomes interested in it. As he begins to start the car up, it plays clips of him starting up the rocket ship and clips of him when he was younger. You can see he's becoming increasingly happy to the point where he smiling from driving the car on the empty roads. This is a play on the thought process of the viewer. The advertisement is trying to make the logical argument that if you are missing your younger years, if you drive our car, you'll become happier. This logical jump from being depressed without the car to being happy when driving is a bit of a stretch. Not all people are into driving cars or have some relation to their past with going fast. However, it isn't necessarily a logical argument that the car will remind you of past experience. It is saying that the car will give the owner the freedom he or she felt when they were younger. This freedom is lost upon most of the older population and when driving the car, you seem to regain that.

Throughout the second part of the commercial when the father and son are in the car, the song Starman written and performed by David Bowie is playing in the background. This is a very fitting song with both relating to space. It is also one of David Bowie's, a popular musical artist throughout all generations, most popular songs. This alone effects the viewer with an emotional bond to the commercial. However, there is a greater emotional appeal to this commercial with the use of the song. David Bowie had recently passed away before the commercial had been released. Many people were grieving over the loss of such a great musical talent as well as people just being exposed to his music. With this sudden surge to his legacy and songs, Audi made the decision to add the song and use all of the relevant attributes of joy and happiness people had when they first heard the song to help pull the viewer in more than what they already were. 

Audi decided to detour from using its brand name's credibility as the main focus of this advertisement and instead focused on an emotional level with the viewers and a logical leap to help their commercial. Some people may have found this commercial in poor taste. Using the emotional appeal of an older who seems to be suffering from depression or some other physical or mental illness would cause a different reaction from people with a negative view towards this. Although it may come across as this to some, I believe it was to be avoided from the company. They wouldn't want to put a potential customer in the position where they have a reason not to buy their car.

