Although Easy on the Eyes and Even Irresistible, Beauty is Only Skin Deep

Mercedes-Benz (2007) recently launched a comedically-entertaining commercial in the United States of America (US), which metaphorically expressed the company's blatant confidence in superiority over other luxury automobile manufacturers. The commercial featured a strict librarian, a large crowd of silent readers, and a beautiful blonde in a large public library. The 35 second skit began with the blonde approaching the busy librarian and startling her by very loudly saying, "Hello... I'd like to order French fries, a burger, and a milkshake!" The drama continued as the insulted librarian offered the blonde a disgusted look and tone, "This is a library!" The naive blonde turned and looked around, realizing her awful mistake, and replied with a whisper, "I'd like to order French fries, a burger, and a milkshake." The confused blonde then smiled sarcastically at the librarian, as if the librarian had been wrongfully rude, while the picture faded away; next, the sales pitch appeared as a romantic piano played in the background... "Beauty is nothing without brains." Another screen replaced that message with, "Mercedes-Benz, Intelligent."

It would be easy for Americans to overlook the underlying context which made this rewarding advertisement possible, but the understanding of this opportunity could actually be quite interesting. The following scholarly examination was conducted on a commercial for Mercedes-Benz which broadcasted throughout the United States of America and made a number of appearances therein, on a wide variety of televised networks. What knowledge can be gained by a rhetorical analysis of the Mercedes-Benz advertising campaign?