As we all know that Nike ads display confidence, attitude, and a good seller about their products. Historically, using successful sports stars has been a typical characteristic of Nike’s commercial. Michael Jordan was one of their main promoters. They are using a lot of rhetorical techniques like ethos, pathos and logos to catch consumers’ attention. Its successful visual appealing makes consumers cannot escape even take a glance of it and want to buy their products.
Briefly Introduce the Visual Content of the Ads
1. This advertisement is a Nike advertisement in the old time.
2. It shows a famous basketball player, Michael Jordan, in the air about to most finish off a slam dunk. There are two lines of words in large size on the top right of the advertisement, showing “Michael Jordan: 1, Isaac Newton: 0” this shows that Michael Jordan is basically defying gravity by being that high up in the air. Thus, this goes against Newton’s law of Universal gravitation.
3. Below these two lines, there is a logo of Nike Company----a check mark. The whole design of this ad is very simple and clear.

Rhetorical Analysis of the Ads: Ethos, Pathos and Logos.
Ethos:
1. The use of ethos is clearly delineated by endorse Michael Jordan.
2. He is a world famous basketball star and has a good reputation.
3. He is wearing Nike shoes in the ad and Jumping that high in the air. His reputation makes audiences and consumers to believe the high quality of Nike shoes.
4. The Jordan ad carried a secondary effect that the capacity to relate to the consumer. We all know that Michael Jordan came from a poor family and went on to become the best in his sport, followed by fame and riches. That was an instant appeal for many consumers and that hidden message transcended across many races and cultures. Therefore Jordan’s reputation is successful ethos to promote Nike products to consumers.
Pathos:
1. Pathos is elicited everywhere in this ad. First of all, to be “Like Mike” is something that pretty much every basketball fans dream.
2. Michael Jordan is one of the greatest basketball players in the history of the world. He has 6 championship rings, and his flashy dunks and amazing play on the court leave people a deep impression that cannot forget about.
3. Nike is advertising that if you buy their product, you can be like Michael Jordan and jump as high as he does. The comparison of Michael Jordan and Isaac Newton emphasize pathos in this advertisement.
4. Everyone knows about Newton’s three laws of motion. It’s just some natural science we learn from school and this comparison perfectly shows that Jordan is defying Newton’s law of gravity.
5. It convey a message to audiences and consumers that if you are wearing Nike shoes, you will get some magic power to ignore Newton’s law of gravity and jump high in the sky just like Jordan does.
Logos
1. They use logos by print Nike’s check mark logo on it.
2. This logo conveys a positive sign to audiences and customers. It is very simple but shows Nike’s attitude strongly: confidence!
3. This check mark is like a reminder telling you that: “Believe yourself, just do it”! Or “Every dream you want to chase is right!” Nike has successfully using logos in their commercials, so whenever we see this check mark.
4. We could think of Nike, think of sports, strength, speed, and confidence. So we have the desire to buy Nike products.
The Better New Ads
1. I think these ads could be better to add a size figure of Newton will make the ad better.
2. If add a Newton figure, it will match the words “Michael Jordan: 1, Isaac Newton: 0” better.
3. I think it would give more emotional appealing to people who are not that familiar with sports or not that into basketball.
4. The original ads will mostly attract young people’s attention. If we add a small Newton figure on the ads, it would attract some senior age people.
5. The new ads will probably attract more school kids that almost start to learn Newton law of motion in their physics classes.
6. The small size Newton figure will not affect the simplicity of the ads and could be more effective. Conclusion In conclusion, this is one of the most successful ads of Nike. Its outstanding use of Ethos, Pathos and Logos give people a lot of rhetorical appealing too. If the ads can add a small size figure of Newton just below Michael Jordan’s picture, it will attract more consumers in different range of age and make the whole ads more effective.