Survivor Cheese

       First, I was captivated by the music in the commercial. It is one of the reasons I did not skip this advertisement to keep searching. Second, I wondered what was going to happen to the mouse while he was nibbling on the cheese. It happened, he was strapped and squeezed by the mousetrap. Finally, the  mouse overcome the trap. Overall, the combination of the music, imagery and the comedy made this commercial enjoyable, even if I was unclear as to how it had anything to do with the selling of cheese.
       It wasn’t until applying the rhetorical triangle model to the commercial that I began to understand the scheme. The mouse is the ethos, or cheese expert. After all the Western media has always painted the mice as cheese cynosures. His willingness to risk death is a testament to the tastiness of the cheese. The music in this case is the pathos. Each song gave credence, it underscored all of the thinks that were happening in the commercial, making the events more believable and sympathetic. I really felt bad for the mouse when the song by the Doors, THE END began playing. As soon as the EYE OF THE TIGER by Survivor started I just knew everything would be alright. The logos is in this case is anti-logic, we know that eating cheese does not make you stronger. The logic in the commercial states that a mouse , an expert on cheese as one would say, risked death by eating the cheese and because he ate the cheese he had the strength to overcame the mouse trap. The mouse’s strength is a metaphor for the strength of the taste of the cheese.
      I found that I am susceptible to pathos, the music was what attracted me to the commercial. I think the commercial was successful. I do want to go out and buy this particular type of cheese. I know it won’t make me strong, but I like strong taste in cheese.