sell, sell, sell!

There are several rhetoric strategies used in the hamburger helper advertisement.

One strategy is narration. The mom is stuck fixing dinner for her famished family. She has no clue as to what she should prepare for dinner. Almost giving up, the hamburger helper hand appears in her kitchen! The mom makes the hamburger helper dinner and her family happily chomps away at the cheesy noodles and cooked hamburger.

An illustration is also applied to this commercial. The product's mascot the white hand or glove, is showed throughout the entire commercial. This reiterates the product's witty slogan: 'hamburger helper helped her hamburger helped her', which is also accompanied by a catchy jingle. The screen zooms in on the hamburger helper box and the hand at the end of the thirty second commercial.

I would say that the cause and effect is the primary rhetorical strategy in this advertisement. The cause is the mom fixing hamburger helper meal. The effect is the happy normal family at the dinner table. This can suggest that by using the product hamburger helper, it can create a normal family moment of happiness, union, and smiles at the dinner table.

Analogy is also used in the selling scheme. It is rather difficult to make food smell and taste good on TV, so the commercial shows the noodles extra cheesy and the final product steaming in the pan. The people eating it also look like they enjoy the food.

The process, or the demonstration of the product is in the commercial as well. The hamburger helper hand whirls around as the food is being made. First the meat is cooked in the pan and then, quite simply, the noodles are added and the cheesy noodles and hamburger are ready to eat!

Overall, even in just one commercial there are multiple strategies to get the viewer to want and buy the product including the ever delicious and delightful hamburger helper.

just say cheese

The first thought that came to my mind was: where is the rest of the arm? Why does the hamburger helper just have a hand--what about the rest of the arm? Besides the obvious malformation of the hamburger helper mascot, the 1983 commercial is rather catchy. The little jingle is a foot taper and the smiling family at the dinner table is encouraging to all those who find themselves lonely at meal times.

First of all I love the fact that the commercial is from the 1980's. The mom's hair has a slight poof and her face is splashed with pastel makeup. It is also interesting to compare commercials from today to this commercial. Most commercials today are raunchy humor, primarily involving beer, sex, and dumb humor. In the 80's the commercials were catchy and witty. Who else could deliver such a clever tune about preparing dinner using a box of hamburger helper?

Anther observation was the overall 'happy' feel of the commercial. In the beginning the mom was stressing about fixing her family dinner and was suddenly relieved and delighted that the smiling white hamburger helper hand mascot came to her rescue. Not only was she smiling and happy but so was this woman's family. Everyone was sitting at the dinner table smiling and laughing as they shoveled sharp cheddar cheesy hamburger helper into their mouths.

I am sure all commercials try to make their product look as tasty and efficient as possible. When one needs help with cooking this commercial should remind them of hamburger helper. The hamburger and the noodles actually looked tasty. The hamburger was added to the pan followed by a perfect rain of uncooked noodles into the pan. Next, the steaming cheesy noodles and hamburger were stirred with a wooden spoon. The viewer can only imagine the delicious aroma coming from that pan as he or she watched the commercial.

The meal obviously tasted good, and the mom is a hero (as well as the hamburger helper hand) and the family sits to enjoy time together and the scrumptious food.