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Caleb Wechsler
Ms. Eva Payne
WR121 Final Essay 2
18 February 2013
Everyone Can Be an Athlete
The world is full of decisions: what to eat, wear, drive, see, hear, and think. It is safe to
say that the average person makes hundreds if not thousands of decisions on a daily basis both
consciously and subconsciously, such as breathing. Many people make conscious decisions
without really thinking about why they make the choice in the first place and then they give
themselves the credit of making the decision. Many people dont realize how propaganda in
advertising is actually leading them to a decision. Advertisements and propaganda are used
everywhere to show people why they need something. Professional athletes endorsing products
are among the worst. Through propaganda and common fallacies, most advertisements
containing professional athletes are geared towards athletes and imply that buying their product
will lead to a higher state of athleticism.
One such advertisement is endorsed by professional skier and NFL player Jeremy Bloom.
The advertisement is for a gym franchise called Equinox. In the advertisement, Mr. Bloom is half
naked with his jeans about as low as they can legally go before the advertisement goes into adult
magazines. He is staring into the camera with his head cocked down, fingers in his pockets,
pulling his jeans down even farther. Mr. Bloom is also in an apparent downpour and is absolutely
soaked from head to toe. Being a professional athlete, he has a rock hard body with too many
abdominal muscles to count. Printed white letters across his chest read ITS NOT FITNESS,
ITS LIFE. In the bottom left hand corner is the Equinox logo (Equinox).
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The post hoc fallacy assumes that because B comes after A, A caused B (Fallacies
2). This advertisement clearly implies that the reason Jeremy Bloom has such an athletic figure is
because he goes to Equinox gym. The advertisement doesnt explain to the consumer that Mr.
Blooms athletic figure is the result of a lifetime of hard work and dedication to his body. The
advertisement also uses a very low-key form of the transfer propaganda technique. McClintock
states that In transfer, advertisers try to improve the image of a product by associating it with a
symbol most people respect (2). The symbol here is not one you can touch, it is fitness itself.
Getting fit is not always easy, but this advertisement improves the allure of getting fit by
showing what a consumer may one day become. To an athlete that recognizes Bloom, this
advertisement is pure gold. Instead of being drawn to a gym with just another gym model on the
advertisement, the athlete is drawn to a gym that is supposedly used by a professional athlete.
The next advertisement is endorsed by professional boxer, Manny Pacquiao. In the
advertisement for Vitwater, Mr. Pacquiao is sitting with a blue Vitwater drink in his hand
looking at the camera. Lining the bottom of the advertisement are all the different kinds of
Vitwater. In the top left hand of the advertisement, white script reads I drink Vitwater all day
everyday, you know? The word Vitwater in the quote is the same color blue as his drink.
Beneath the quote in cursive script is Mr. Pacquaios signature. The whole advertisement is a
droll grey color except the Vitwater bottles, which are vibrant hues of orange, blue, yellow, and
red (Vitwater).
McClintock refers to the testimonial propaganda technique as a capitalization on the
admiration people have for a celebrity to make the product shine more brightlyeven though the
celebrity is not an expert on the product being sold (3). Manny Pacquaio is a professional
athlete, not a professional energy drink inventor and is most likely not an expert in the subject.
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This is a way for him to make money. The post hoc fallacy is used in a very similar manner to
the Bloom advertisement. Vitwater wants the consumer to think that because Mr. Pacquaio
drinks Vitwater all day everyday, he is a great boxer because of it. When an aspiring boxing
athlete is choosing between energy waters, they are most likely going to choose the one that
represents their sport.
When sports are involved, Nike is never far around the corner. The next advertisement is
for Nike basketball shoes called Kobe II Supernaturals. NBA all-star Kobe Bryant is standing in
a purple room in with his hand under his chin, looking at the camera. Behind him are big purple
wings spread out, except instead of feathers, it is a bunch of shoes rotated to look like feathers. In
the left hand side is a quote which reads Im chasing perfection, elevating my game. Zoom
Kobe II helps me be the best basketball player I can be. Natural fit and motion. Supernatural
performance. On the right side is the Just Do It logo with the Nike sign (Nike).
Glittering generality is a propaganda technique where advertisers surround their
products with attractiveand slipperywords and phrases. They use vague terms that are
difficult to define and that may have different meanings to different people(McClintock 1).
Nike uses what may be the most well-known glittering generality in all of advertising through
their Just Do It campaign. Just Do It is extremely vague and can mean a multitude of things
to different people, which makes it an effective technique to draw in a crowd from all walks of
life. To an athlete it can mean anything as well, but Nike wants the consumer to think that their
products will help them achieve it. The post hoc fallacy used here is much more blatant than in
the previous two advertisements. Mr. Bryant is actually stating that the shoes are making him the
best player he can be, and the wings symbolize flying or jumping high. Nike is heavily implying
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that athletes (especially basketball players) should buy their shoes in order to be as good as Mr.
Bryant.
The final advertisement that uses the post hoc fallacy along with a professional athlete is
for Gatorade. In the advertisement, professional soccer player Mikael Forsell is scoring a goal by
kicking the ball through a goalie made out of water. The top left portion of the advertisement
reads Its in Mikael Forsell and the bottom right portion reads Is it in you? The word it is
bright orange. The bottom of the advertisement has an orange bottle of Gatorade that matches the
orange script (Gatorade).
Gatorade takes cues from Nike by using the glittering generalities propaganda technique.
Gatorade even uses the same word: it. The consumer looking at this advertisement can see it
can refer to actual Gatorade, or anything else they want to substitute. It could very well mean
the drive and motivation to succeed. In terms of fallacy, it means actual Gatorade. In this
advertisement, Gatorade is implying that because their product is in Mr. Forsell, resulting in a
great soccer player. Gatorade wants the consumer to think that by drinking Gatorade, they can be
a better player. Another fallacy used in this advertisement is false dichotomy, which is when an
advertiser sets up the situation so it looks like there are only two choicesthen eliminates one
of the choices, so it seems that we are left with only one choice (Fallacies 7). In this case the
choice is either Gatorade or water. Since Mr. Forsell is destroying the goalie made out of water,
he leaves the consumer only one choice: Gatorade.
Every athlete wants to be better, faster, and stronger. Along with common fallacies and
propaganda techniques, professional athletes imply that the product they represent can do just
that. As long as professional athletes are representing products, athletic consumers will buy their
products with the hopes of becoming a higher caliber athlete.
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Works Cited

Equinox Gym. Advertisement. money.cnn.com. CNN, 13 Feb. 2006. Web. 8 Feb. 2013.

Fallacies. my.chemeketa.edu. Chemeketa Community College, n.d. Web, 10 Feb. 2013.

Gatorade. Advertisement. www.adsoftheworld.com. AOTW, 4 Feb. 2009. Web. 8 Feb. 2013.

McClintock, Ann. Propaganda Techniques in Todays Advertising. my.chemeketa.edu.
Chemeketa Community College, n.d. Web, 2 Feb. 2013.

Nike. Advertisement. www.nike.com. Nike, 11 June 2007. Web. 8 Feb. 2013.

Vitwater. Advertisement. www.sunmar.blogspot.com. Blogspot.com, 22 Aug. 2009. Web. 8
Feb. 2013.