The slippery slope is an emotional rhetorical fallacy used in satire, as an argument to suggest that one thing leads to another in a drastic and often times negative fashion. Direct TV has a series of commercials that demonstrate advertising through use of the slippery slope. In this commercial a chain of horrible events ultimately leading to "waking up in a road side ditch," all stem from not having Direct TV, but dealing with the hassles of cable television. Overall, depicting in a comedic way that, if you had Direct TV, you wouldn't be waking up in a roadside ditch.
1) In what ways does this interpretation of the slippery slope represent our immediate reaction to a frustrating situation before we're able to rationally analyze it?
2)Why might the narrator start out with a practical sequences of events (being on hold, becoming frustrated), then shifted toward unreasonable ones? (Waking up in a ditch)
3)When the clip references "being tough," as a result of the eye patch they show a group of larger men in baggy attire, where as the man with the eye patch is wearing a matching sweat suit with a tennis racket at his side. How is this associated with being tough? How do we categorize one as "tough" just by looking at them?
4)The makers of this commercial creatively use the "slippery slope" effect to add comedy to try to persuade anyone that owns cable TV to switch to Direct TV. At what point in the series of events that take place does the story line seem unrealistic? It what other ways might this be effective in advertising?
Nicole Camloh
Anthony Denis
William Bryant
I actually think that slippery slope is our way of over analyzing a situation. Instead of having an issue and dealing with it rationally, we think of all the things that could go wrong. The commercial is trying to show their audience that if they decide not to get switch from cable and get Direct TV, they could experience a bad sequence of events or have terrible things happen to them. They say that switching to Direct TV will ensure that none of these things will occur. I do think it becomes unrealistic at the end of the commercial when the man is on the bus with an eye patch and the "tough guys" want to see how tough he is because this is unlikely to happen from a day to day basis.
ReplyDeleteThe interpretation of the slippery slope fallacy shows how we are likened to think in a stressful situation, where we usually use too much emotion and irrational thinking. The narrator makes the jump from realistic to ridiculous to appeal to our own problem with thinking in the slippery slope mode. Eye patches and baggy clothes are seen as "tough" because of the associations and stereotypes we make in our society. The events become unrealistic when the "tough guys" want to fight our protagonist, because people don't usually go on buses looking for other tough guys to fight.
ReplyDeleteThe slippery slope is a cognitive distortion that almost everyone has experience of at least once in their lives. It is a way of coping with situations we feel we have no control over, and leads us to irrational thoughts that increase anxiety. I think the writers of this commercial know that they are being ridiculous, and they overblow the situation for comedy only. However, I can't help but notice that the situation that represented, even if comical, has absolutely no relation to the goal of the commercial- to sell Direct TV. But because viewers get caught up in the comedy, they don't take a moment to realize "What does waking up in a ditch and having an eye patch have anything to do with TV?" That is what slippery slope does- it diverts attention from the original problem and making a simple decision that solves the problem, instead, presenting the original problem and extrapolating upon unsavory situations that could occur to prevent a solution from being met.
ReplyDeleteThis commercial uses slippery slope to try and get across its point of buying direct tv. Overall i think that the slippery slope method of advertising is just used to connect to very irrelevant things. Things such as bad cable service and seeing if someone is tough. The narrator starts of relatively practical in his assumption of what would happen if there was bad cable to get the commercial viewers committed to the product. Later it adds unrealistic consequences to add humor to the advertisement.
ReplyDeleteAlthough as Justen mentions that in this instance, the slippery slope method of advertising is rather ineffective, in what ways could slippery slope be used effectively? The unrealistic events that occur towards the end of the commercial provide a sense of comedy but does this pull from their intentions to get you to purchase Direct TV? If so, why do you think they would do this?
ReplyDeleteOverall i felt the comercial did itss orginal purpose. The point of a comercial is to catch your atttention and convince to buy something you dont necessarily need at the moment. The slippery slope effect has no relation whatsoever to deciding wether to buy direct tv or not. But the comercial is in fact able to get the viewer to relate to the problem in the commercial, and in turn able to catch their attention to keep watching it. Then after all that they have successfully caught viewers attention and got them to remember and think about why on earth would they want to buy direct TV from a commercial like that. People might decide to, or at least got them interested in looking into Direct TV.
ReplyDeleteSlippery slope could be used more effectively if the situations described were realistic. The events in the beginning are realistic and catch your attention. You continue to watch because it becomes funny. However, making all the events realistic would defeat the purpose of the commercial. Direct TV is trying to exaggerate the consequences of having cable, and will try to get buyers no matter what it takes. The clip is funny, and though I personally would not buy Direct TV, I feel that others might look into it after seeing the commercial.
ReplyDeleteThe narrator would start out with a rational series of events at first to get you to believe that the events could happen. Then as the commercial progresses they get more radical to get you feeling a bit scared into not wanting to wake up in a road side ditch. The events are blown out of proportion but could actually happen but most likely wouldn't which makes it a bit funny. At the point when the man is on the bus and gets beat up is a stretch from reality, but it could all really happen.
ReplyDeleteSplippery Slope can be regarded as the emotional imply that leads people mess up everything. When you in an adversity with a negative attitude, you can lose courage to fix up the situation and lead yourself to an even worse situation. Direct TV uses slippery slope to publicize the necessity of owning their product, but I feel kind of farfetched. Especially they say if you wear an eyepatch, you will be punched by tough guys. However, the clip is still funny and impressive. It's a good advertising of Direct TV, but not a best example for Slippery Slope.
ReplyDeleteWe generally get frustrated and do irrational things instead of rationally analyzing a situation.
ReplyDeleteThe people did this so that the final conclusion seems more reasonable.
Eye patches are seen as tough because they are worn by pirates which is the first thing we think of as we see a eye patch.
It begins to seem unrealistic when the man with the eye patch gets tested as tough because of how he looked. This is effective because it leads to the final conclusion that bad things can happen if you don't have direct tv.
I feel like the commercial has done its job in creating comedy and from that, marketing the brand name of Direct TV. When these series of commercials are mentioned, almost everyone can associate them with Direct TV. This is what advertising is all about. Even though the creators' slippery slope events are unrealistic, it is meant to add humor to the commercial and in the end, make people remember Direct TV in hopes that they purchase it when deciding between cable or Direct TV.
ReplyDeleteI feel like this commercial uses the slippery slope effect very nicely in that it shows how if you do not have cable you can not watch your favorite shows or anything of the sort which in many households is actually a main cause of stress and too much stress does lead to the so called slippery slope where you begin making rash decisions and one event leads to another and so forth. However, this commercial somewhat uses the slippery slope more for comedic effect by taking the events to the extreme which in many cases would never happen.
ReplyDeleteThe use of the slippery slope makes sense up until the part where hes on the bus and the thugs come and chase him cause they think he looks tough. The add effectively uses satire to make viewers find their commercial funny to get more customers. It can also be said that the commercial uses scare tactics in the sense that you will end up in a ditch if you do not get Direct TV.
ReplyDeletei think the stream of commercials is very effective. the slippery slope is used to add humor to attract viewers so that they don't change the channel. they are trying to get across that you won't be on hold with Direct TV and end up in a ditch. although this is an exaggeration it gets the viewers thinking
ReplyDeleteThis is a prime example of the slippery slope effect being used for advertisement. Although it is comical and very exaggerated it gets the point of the ad across. By working up to the things that are less likely to happen the narrator is able to draw in the listener because they use things the listener actually does and when the customer can connect to the commercial they would be more likely to buy the product.
ReplyDeleteThe slippery slope misleads us to follow the its irrational logic to a kind of disastrous results, which in this case is waking up in a road side ditch. The commercial successfully persuade us to think about getting a direct TV rather than the cable before we are able to think about it rationally. In order to make the slippery slope more persuasive, it starts with a practical event and when the audience begin to follow the commercial, it then starts its trick to mislead the them. The wonderful thing is when we finally begin to be able to think over it rationally, it does not any sense. But when we follow the commercial, all thing seems to be connected and does make us to think like it.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the logic in this clip is irrational, even ridiculous, I think this is a very creative and successful advertisement. It seems Direct TV makes many short clips using this emotional fallacies. And I can't stop watching them, because every consequence of the previous event in the clip is some kind relative but also make surprising. And people subscribe the video by following the logic structure. The clip is not only create a joke but also create their culture. This advertisement is not only selling product but also selling brand.
ReplyDeleteThis commercial uses slippery slope to make it seem like if the customer does not buy their product there will be disastrous consequences. Slippery slope is often used to make people afraid of bad things happening, which leads them to buy into what is being advertised to feel safe.
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