For many people who watch the Super Bowl, the best part about it is not the football itself, but the commercials that punctuate the action. Although the majority of these commercials and advertisements appeal to humor, they are not just shown for a good laugh. The Super Bowl commercials are strategically designed to appeal to everyone without being extremely straightforward about whatever they are advertising. These commercials appeal to the viewers' emotions, or pathos. This is one of the best ways to get the attention of an audience. One Super Bowl 50 commercial that strongly appealed to a sense of humor was the Doritos Ultrasound commercial. This commercial is set in an ultrasound room with a man, his pregnant wife, and their ultrasound technician. Emotional appeal is primarily what is advertising the product; however, logos and ethos are also present throughout the ad, making it an effective commercial. The commercial depicts a pregnant woman receiving an ultrasound, while her husband is nonchalantly eating Doritos and not paying attention. The wife begins to get very upset because her husband is not paying attention to her or their baby. She starts to complain to the ultrasound technician about how she has to deal with this regularly. As this is happening, the husband notices that the baby moves wherever he moves his Dorito chip. The wife is frustrated and the husband is amused, and eventually the baby jumps out of its mother's womb to get the Dorito chip.

Many things factor into commercials that constitute an effective ad. Credibility, or ethos, is one of them. Credibility is what makes an advertisement reliable, believable, and leads the viewer to want to invest in whatever is being advertised. The credibility that arises from this commercial comes from the product itself that is being advertised. Doritos is a very well known chip brand. Many people are familiar with the Doritos brand, therefore it has a natural credibility. If people are familiar with the brand, they are more likely to trust it. When someone sees a Doritos advertisement they immediately will be familiar with the product, and due to Dorito's previous comical commercials, it can be expected that whatever Doritos ad is being shown will be an entertaining one. Another aspect of the advertisement that appeals to pathos is the location. The commercial takes place in a doctor's office, and people trust doctor's, so the location of the advertisement already feels comforting and appealing. The last part of this particular ad that gives it credibility is that it is relatable. A pregnant, sensitive woman, and a distracted, hungry husband are very typical stereotypes for a married couple. This makes the commercial relatable to both men and women. It depicts a relatively realistic relationship between a man and a woman who are not getting along. If the advertisement is relatable, the product is more likely to be appealing to the viewer, and if it is realistic, people are more likely to relate. 

Another very important aspect to the commercial that makes it such an effective ad is the emotional appeal that is created. Humor is the primary emotion that the advertisers are appealing to. While the commercial starts off more serious with a pregnant woman getting an ultrasound, it is very quickly turned into a comical ad. The pregnant woman's husband begins to make a farce of their ultrasound while taunting the baby fetus with a Dorito. The viewer can find humor in not only the husband being childish, but also in his wife's response to his childish behavior. The more amused the husband is with the baby, the angrier the wife gets with him, and the more entertaining the scenario becomes. 

Another emotional appeal that comes from this advertisement is the maternal emotional appeal. The commercial's theme is centered around a pregnant mother and her child. The mother is receiving an ultrasound, a very common experience shared by pregnant women in America. This ad appeals to any female who has children or wants children. This appeal, however, can also be a very sensitive topic. Reviews of this commercial, particularly relating to the how the popular snack was advertised through an unborn child, were not very positive. The commercial, clearly, had a very negative emotional appeal to some people. The big issue of pro-choice versus pro-life, is an issue that was very quickly called into question during this advertisement. While the creator of this commercial was mostly trying to sell Doritos, he may have accidentally taken a jab at pro-choice supporters. He was accused of humanizing this unborn fetus by showing its response to the Doritos chips. By showing the babies responsiveness and alertness even while it is only in the womb, he was making the fetus much more humanized. This gives pro-choice believers the impression that even though it is just a fetus, it is like a living human. While pro-choice believers are typically not very sensitive to the fact that a fetus is still a human, this graphic depiction of a living, breathing, moving child inside its mother's womb gives them a different perspective. This subject is very sensitive in politics today, and the creator of the commercial, Peter Carstairs, responded by saying, "The guys I wrote it with really liked the idea when it comes to child birth and the concept that mothers usually see the process as really spiritual and life-changing. Dads are usually sitting in the corner, watching the footy and keeping to themselves and mums get annoyed with this. We thought we could play with this idea" (Daily Mail). Carstairs clearly had no intention of offending the extremely sensitive group of pro-choice believers who took this commercial to heart so strongly. However, this is what makes emotional appeal a difficult task to accomplish in advertisements. While Carstairs appealed to many people with his sense of humor, he greatly offended others. Nonetheless, the advertisement and the product were given a great deal of attention.

The credibility and emotional appeal that this advertisement elicits, along with its humorous and light hearted tone, are what creates such an effective ad. While Doritos are not a very challenging product to advertise, the producers of this commercial did an above and beyond job of relating marital humor, food, and a bit of a twisted ending into one TV commercial that stirred up a large crowd of football fans. 

