Analyzing Digital Rhetoric: Subaru Dog Tested

Ryan Decker
ENGL 397: Digital Rhetoric
2 min readSep 7, 2018

Subaru won’t be cornering the market on school transportation anytime soon, but the rhetorical appeal in this brief car advert does a lot to take the attention of its audience.

The message here is simple: Going back to school is tough for everyone. It’s an experience just about everyone who will see this commercial can say they’ve been through, but why is Subaru making a statement on going back to school? Why not something more product-oriented like a story of how Subarus are reliable and affordable? The purpose of this advert is to simply put Subaru on your radar. It’s the commercial equivalent of a wish-you-well greeting card designed to be subtle and non-intrusive to your day. That’s it. And for some people, this message is the one that really hits home.

We can see a bit more going on when we take an analytical approach to the design of the commercial, which allows us to see why such a simple idea can have a potentially large impact. The target audience of this advert is the modern family, who as we know can sympathize with the content on a few different levels. Knowing both the target audience and the purpose of the advert tells us that this message isn’t an attempt to entice consumers to buy what they see, but rather to show that the people behind Subaru are humans too. It’s a humble commercial that doesn’t appear to do too much, but there are a few other rhetorical devices at work that boost the power of the message:

  • Pathos - It’s both woeful and heartwarming to send kids back to school, but add a bunch of cute dogs to the mix and you’re gonna have some serious feels. The emotional tug of the sad and adorable is the strongest evidence of an emotional appeal that gets viewers to react and engage with the material. However, it’s not the only factor of pathos at play. The humorous title of the school at which this young pup is enrolled adds a slight hint of humor to the commercial. It’s not a lot, but that’s so it doesn’t overpower the main emotion Subaru is trying to convey.
  • Kairos - Depending on who you ask, it’s the most wonderful time of the year. Schools everywhere are beginning to open their doors, and that timing makes the message of this advert really pertinent.
  • Ethos - There’s only a tiny bit of ethical appeal in this commercial, but it’s a very important bit. Most people probably notice the disclaimer in tiny text on the bottom of all sorts of commercials, but if you read it, you’ll see that Subaru is doing their (legally obligated) part to keep people safe and pets secure.

A job well done to Subaru for crafting this modest interruption to my YouTube marathon of movie clips. For a low-risk publicity booster, they know how to find some fine puppers.

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Ryan Decker
ENGL 397: Digital Rhetoric

English Major. Anthropology Minor. Creative writer. Nature enthusiast. Passionate about video games. Swing dancer. I kinda do just about everything.