Rhetorical Essay: Easy Driver, Voice and Audience

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Rhetorical Essay: Easy Driver
Easy Driver is the commercial that introduced the Mercedes AMG’s new car in the market: the Mercedes AMG GT C Roadster. The vehicle is the latest of the company’s flagship vehicles in 2017 as it celebrates 50th anniversary of success in the American market. The vehicle commercial does rounds with a famous slogan Born to Be Wild. The sleek coupe is a show of style and speed, combining an easy handling and transmission system that is both flexible and economical; consuming only 11.4 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (Florea). The advertisement for the product delivers a message that makes it to be wild and desirable for both the young and the old drivers.
Voice and Audience
The Easy Driver employs a perfect combination of graphic and music to pass clearly its message. The ad employs storyline from the famous movie Easy Driver where a band of old bikers is having a good time at a roadside bar called Tinny’s in the middle of the dessert. The ad also uses the Born to be Wild music by Steppenwolf, used in the same movie in the 1969. The combination of the behaviors of the riders and the powerful roar of the car at the end of the ad delivers a desire that compels both old and young drivers. The ad appeared as a television commercial before and during the American Super Bowl finals, which occurred early 2017. The advertisement mainly targets both young and old drivers, who want to feel the adrenaline and the rush associated with young people. This is true, according to the slogan of the ad, where the product suits the audience who loves to be wild.
The setting for the advertisement is on a roadside bar alongside the Route 66 highway in the middle of a desert. The feeling and mood inside the bar is that of ecstasy as the revelers drink and play pool. One of the old hippies goes to a recorder and chooses the Born to be Wild song by the popular 1970 musician Steppenwolf. The feeling inside the bar suddenly changes as the old riders remember their old days when the song was popular. At this time, all of them were young and suddenly they begin doing what bikers do in movies: hugging, arm wrestling, and partying.
One of the revelers hugs his friend and their chains intertwine. They hit their heads and begin pulling apart from each other as friends cheer on. Another group of revelers tries out a arm wrestling and one of them head buts the other. The mood inside the bar turns from frenzy to chaos as the old hippies try out the things they did in their youth, which they cannot manage successfully. One of the revelers tries to flex his muscle, but end up jerking his hand with a painful twist. The background music juxtaposes the laughing and the talks inside the bar, when suddenly a black person enters the bar with a violent swing of the doors and utters the words “Blocked in”. Each of the revelers repeats the same words in deep surprise.
They quickly get out of the bar to find their motorcycles blocked by a sleek grey Mercedes AMG GT C Roadster. The sight of the vehicle quickly evaporates their anger and they watch in surprise as an old driver, Peter Fonder, come, and opens the car’s door as he tells them “Nice rides.” One of the re...