Alejandre 1

Daniel Alejandre

English 103

Professor Granillo

28 May 2019

Multimodal Project Outline

I. Introduction

a. Hook: The word renowned French chef once said, “We are selling dreams. We

are merchants of happiness”. Every business wants to make it’s customers happy

and they all want to get their business name out there by selling themselves

through advertising. In order to successfully sell themselves as a business they

need to sell a good story to the consumers which leaves an imprint on the them in

some kind of wa and relates it back to the brand. A good story is like pollen and

the consumer are like bees.

b. Summary:Nike attempts to inspire and empower through the story they are selling

in their commercial “ Dream Crazy”. In this commercial, Colin Kaepernick

narrates a compilation of athletes and tells their stories of overcoming adversity

and striving to become the best ever in their sport or to even become bigger than

their sport. This commercial garnered massive amounts of attention to Nike and

according to Time magazine, it caused an increase in their sales 31% following

,overall being effective in its increasing exposure and revenue for the brand.

(Martinez 1)

c. Thesis: By analyzing the commercial through Marxist Concepts such as false

consciousness, repressive ideologies, and commoditiy fetishment it is evident that

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Nike is trying to convince the consumers that their product is more than inanimate

object it represents an idea. Although Nike attempts to inspire in their commercial

and empower the audience by selling them a story of athletes overcoming

adversity and appearing to take a stand in social justice implementing the

rhetorical appeals of ethos and pathos to convince but ultimately it is all a ploy to

sell their product.

II. False consciousness and Repressive Ideology

Topic sentence: Through the Marxist concept of false consciousness and repressive ideologies it

can be broken down to prove that the ad is a ploy to sell people Nike products by instilling a

false sense of empowerment in people.

a. Evidence:“False consciousness occurs when a dominant social group shapes the beliefs

and desires of a subordinate group in such a way that the subordinates act for the benefit

of the dominants, but against their own interests.”(Andres 1)

b. The people running Nike are all incredibly rich and although they use the ad to seem as if

they are trying to empower people through pathos by showing imagery that is intended to

garner an emotional response that would in turn, empower the audience viewing the ad

to follow their dreams and “dream crazy” even though other people tell them their dreams

are crazy. They put forth the repressive ideology of rugged individualism even though it’s

a flawed ideology and promote it as righteous for example the quotes from the ad

“Believe in something even if it means sacrificing everything” to sell its product or get

the message out there. Nike is selling a flawed message to people that may affect them

negatively to help them sell their product for their own financial gain.
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c. No where in the ad does it say that the dream has to be good it just says follow any dream

you have no matter how crazy it is at all costs. This may have unforeseen consequences

because the ad doesn't specify if the dream has to be good it’s just telling people to strive

for it no matter what.

d. Nike uses pathos to inspire and empower but the ad isn't doing anything but manipulating

the consumer to buy Nike. The ad is a ploy and Nike is using the emotions of the viewers

against them to convince them to buy Nike rather than inspire the viewer.

e. Evidence #2 “Marxism works to make us constantly aware of all the ways in which we

are products of material/historical circumstances and of the repressive ideologies

that serve to blind us to this fact in order to keep us subservient to the ruling power

System”(Tyson 66)

E. Evidence # 3 Rugged individualism … puts self-interest above the

needs – and even above the survival – of other people. By keeping the focus on

“me” instead of on “us,” rugged individualism works against the well-being of

society as a whole and of underprivileged people in particular. Rugged

individualism also gives us the illusion that we make our own decisions without

being significantly influenced by ideology of any sort when, in fact, we’re all

influenced by various ideologies all the time, whether we realize it or not.(Tyson 69)

II. Commodity Fetishment

a. Topic sentence: Another way this ad can be analyzed is through the Marxist concept of

Commodity Fetishment.
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b. According to Marx,“A commodity appears at first sight an extremely obvious, trivial

thing. But its analysis brings out that it is a very strange thing, abounding in metaphysical

subtleties and theological niceties"( Marx 163)

c. Commodity fetishment takes trivial things and makes them more desirable through the

things it might represent. Nike fetishises it’s products to be more than just sports gear but

a statement. If you wear Nike you in favor of the message nike is putting out, of the

people of the ad and the empowerment. In reality the company is doing this to make it’s

product more desirable even though the product physically has nothing to do with social

justice or empowerment it is simply an article of clothing but the ad instead of focusing

on if nike makes good clothes, focuses instead on a message they are connecting to the

product; the message has absolutely no connection to the product but Nike frames in their

ad as if it does.

d. Nike uses ethos by employing athletes and Colin Kaepernick to improve its reputation

e. Nike is hypocritical because they support a man standing up for the oppressed while they

oppress the worker making their clothes.

f. By wearing Nike, it makes the consumer feel like an individualist, who is ready to do

whatever it takes to achieve their goals and stand by the side of social change. But in

reality Nike has carefully framed their brand in a way that makes people value the social

implications of their clothes rather than the actual effectiveness of them.

III. Conclusion

a. Restate thesis: In summary Nike tries to trick consumers with an idea of achieving

dreams and empowerment to buy their product

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b. Through Marxist Ideologies such as Commodity fetishment, repressive ideologies such as

rugged individualism and false conscious it is evident Nike is trying to use the ad for its

own gain, to sell more of its product to consumers

c. People need to be aware that even if an ad campaign or a message sounds very

inspirational or promising they need to be aware of the motive and the rhetorical appeals

of Pathos and Ethos present to convince. Ads aren’t for anything more than exposing

brands and selling their products and Nike isn’t any different.