The Super Bowl is the most watched television even in America every year; this one event draws over 100 million viewers across the U.S. every year (NFL.com). Because of the gigantic audience, ad spaces are highly coveted and cost upwards of millions of dollars for a minute and a half of ad space. When companies only have about a minute and a half window to make an impact on the consumer, they have to make the ad as eye catching and effective as possible to have an effect on such a large audience. Many of these ads take a comical approach to get the viewers' attention, some try to compare their product to others to show why their truck can haul two times that of their leading competitor. However some companies, like Axe hair product, appeal to the personal side, and try to show how their product is a part of someone's identity as a human being, which is why Axe has the most effective and persuasive super bowl commercial of 2016.

The ad starts off with the camera on a billboard with a chiseled model and asks the question "come on ...  a six pack?" Which is then answered by the statement "Who needs a six pack when you have the nose?" and the camera pans down to a muscle car with a young man with a large nose and a cute girl in there with him laughing. The narrator then goes on to say "Or a nose, when you got the suit?" and an ambitious looking young man walking swiftly is shown. This cycle of rebuttal then is then repeated for many different types of people. Axe uses this pathos appeal to highlight the things that make people unique and interesting such as the great cross-dressing break-dancer dancer that has "the heels," or like the nerdy kid with the great hair whose "got the brains," or the tough bearded man with kittens who's "got the aweee," so that we can appreciate how axe is a universal product for everyone. Axe finishes the ad on the boy with the nose begging the question "Who needs some other thing, when you've got your thing" which calls the viewer to embrace the thing that made them unique which really appeals to the emotions of the consumer by creating such a connection with their style. The camera changes and pans up from a sink to a shelf full of axe products and calls on the viewer to go work on "your thing," the aspect of your look that makes you unique, and all the different people in the commercial are highlighted showing off their unique hair. Axe does a great job with their pathological argument because they really create a connection with the viewer by encouraging then to me more themselves.

Axe does a good job of appealing to ethos in their commercial as well because they are not trying to tell you how to style yourself. They're simply giving you the tools to be able to do so. The ultimate authority on a person's style and personality is the person himself because nobody can really tell a person how to dress or act. And since you are the best at knowing what makes you unique, you are the person Axe should be highlighting or trying to cater to, which is what they try to do by showing such a diverse type of people and hairstyles in their commercial.

In a conformist world that often tries to tell you that you should have the same phone as all your friends, or have the same, laptop, or jeans, or what have you, it is refreshing to see an ad like Ax's that really highlights the different traits and characteristics that make people different and awesome. Axe does such a great job at selling their product because their pathos appeal convinces you to be more yourself then you already are, by buying their product to create a look that makes you unique from those around you. With a the different styles, cultures, and people represented in the modern U.S. Axe does a great job at convincing you to buy their product by showing how it can help all those different types of people to be more unique and have their own look that reflects them.



