Could you Live Better? Many people have the thought, “What more could I do with my life?” In a commercial ad from Monster.com, this is the question they want people to consider. Monster.com is an online site that endorses different types of jobs and is considered to be one of the largest employment sites in the world. The commercial begins with a stork crossing through mountains, a desert, and an ominous sea with a baby draped in a white blanket held in its beak. It continues as the bird flies through a snow covered mountain top, protecting the newborn from a pack of wolves and also through a wicked thunderstorm. Through all the hardship, the stork finally lands the swaddled baby on the front porch of a friendly warm home. As the couple opens the swaddled blanket, the baby yawns and the scene is suddenly switched to the baby grown up as a young man also yawning sitting in a cramped office with papers piled high upon his desk, appearing to be working late at night with bags under his eyes, as though his job is stressful and dull. The commercial ends with the man looking out the window and seeing the same stork that conquered all those adversities to keep him safe now perched on the window sill looking at him with a disappointed look and then looks down in dissatisfaction. The commercial concludes with text saying, “Have you reached your potential?” This commercial was intriguing because it made me think, unlike other commercials that usually just make me giggle or have no effect on me at all. Monster.com uses calm music and an angelic bird to catch the viewer’s attention. Throughout this essay, I’ll be looking at the benefits of using ethos by the effect of using only sound and text, the values of the company shown through the commercial, and how the company views people in our job market today through this ad. Monster.com usually does not use a deep, rhetorical thinking approach in their commercials which is why I was particularly captivated by this ad because when I saw it, it caught me off guard and made me think about my own life and the direction it is going now and where I want it to be going. It projects the audience of young adults who might be just entering the work force continuously straining themselves with a job they physically have to force themselves to get up and go to each day. I think that by using an emotional approach it allows the company to reach out to people in the work force and make them re-evaluate their lives in a serious way. Using a more somber appeal to their ad makes their company look serious in what they do and want viewers to live fully to what they are capable of.
Leaving out comedy or parody’s allows the viewer to take a look within their own lives in a thoughtful manner to aid them in consideration of leaving their unappealing, unpleasant, and dismal occupation for one that may be in their interest and to use Monster.com to fulfill their career dreams. They further enhance the message of their commercial by using no dialogue, but having only tranquil music throughout the beginning of the commercial and dangerous perils to conquer to show that life is precious. The stork gave the baby a life full of potential dreams and by abruptly stopping the music, it brings the viewer to reality to see what the man actually did with the life he was given and what happens to most people in today’s society; which is not beautiful and dream-fulfilling representative of the music played in the beginning. Using no dialogue makes the viewer become engaged that much deeper in the ad because they did not have to focus on characters talking, but simply watch what was happening and make the viewer focus solely on the message that was being presented. My first impressions were that this company was just another Craig’s List, nonchalantly showing commercials here and there, using a cliché purple monster as their mascot for the site and having little care whether or not people actually used the site
