Rhetorical Ad Blog
Eminem and Brisk Iced Tea
Brisk Iced Tea Company began in the early 1990s as a joint project between PepsiCo and Unilever. According to “The Untold History of Brisk Iced Tea: From Unlikely Allies to Billion-Dollar Brand,” the two companies joined together due to the rapidly growing iced-tea market. Yet instead of making a traditional tea, they designed Brisk to be bold and sweet, a soda-like tea that stood out for its strong flavors and high sugar content. Due to their different approach to tea, it helped Brisk quickly gained popularity and became renowned. However, over time, it faced criticism for its sweetness, so they shifted toward new flavors and sweeteners. This evolution of the brand helps explain why Brisk turned into such a bold advertising campaign. In my opinion, the “Brisk Eminem Super Bowl Commercial 2011” works because its stylistic choices, rhetorical appeals, and rhetorical situation effectively persuade us, the viewers, to drink the beverage and make us agree that the ad works, despite a few fallacies.
To give a rundown of the ad, the famous rapper Eminem, who is known for his aggressive, abrasive, and pretty much blunt music and opinions, is in the “Brisk Eminem Super Bowl Commercial 2011.” During the ad, Eminem expresses in his claymation form that he doesn’t like doing commercials because the products he tries usually end up not working or he hates them. Yet when he tries the drink for the first time, he expresses a bold exclamation, admitting that even he likes it. Now the real question is: what was so good about Brisk Iced Tea that even Eminem liked it?
The rhetorical situation of the Eminem Brisk commercial becomes clear through SOAPSTone. The speaker is a claymation version of Eminem, whose sarcastic and down-to-earth personality stays perfectly intact despite being made of clay. The occasion is the 2011 Super Bowl, and usually during the Super Bowl, all brands fight for attention harder than the teams on the field. The audience includes the viewers of the Super Bowl, that being adults, kids, or even teens, but mainly teens to young adults who are familiar with Eminem’s music and humor. The purpose is to revive Brisk’s cultural relevance and present the brand as bold and authentic. The tone is seen as playful, bold, and slightly rebellious, matching both Eminem’s persona and Brisk’s long-standing style of marketing.
In the “Brisk Eminem Super Bowl Commercial 2011,” the Brisk commercial relies heavily on ethos, using Eminem’s established credibility to strengthen Brisk’s brand identity. In the ad, Eminem’s claymation character complains about doing commercials, insisting he doesn’t “do” ads because they are either fake or he just doesn’t like the product. This reinforces his real-world reputation for authenticity and his artistic integrity. By showing Eminem as a hesitant participant in any advertisement, the commercial makes Brisk out as a brand worthy of his time and endorsement. This strategy works because it makes Brisk look bold, genuine, and, at that time, according to “The Untold History of Brisk Iced Tea: From Unlikely Allies to Billion-Dollar Brand,” the article states the brand needed cultural relevancy.
The commercial also taps into pathos, using humor and playful exaggeration to connect emotionally with viewers. The claymation style also makes Eminem look both intense and, in my opinion, oddly charming, which isn’t a combination a lot of people expected from him. His sarcastic commentary about typical commercials adds a layer of relatability; viewers know exactly what he means because they’ve seen those chest ads a thousand times. This emotional appeal works because it makes the audience laugh and feel “in on the joke,” creating a sense of connection between the brand and people. In a crowded Super Bowl lineup, humor is often the difference between an ad that people remember and the ones forgotten before halftime. Brisk uses pathos to make itself memorable, likable, and worth talking about even after the game is long over. Lastly, Kairos plays an extremely critical role because during that time it was the Super Bowl, and everybody knows ads are most likely seen way more during the game.
Now, of course, the “Brisk Eminem Super Bowl Commercial 2011,” doesn’t just use humor for emotional appeal or just credibility. It, however, slips in a couple of pathos-based fallacies that may have weakened its message in the ad. One clear example is the Bandwagon fallacy, where the ad implies that because millions of Super Bowl viewers are watching and because Eminem himself approves, everyone else should jump on the Brisk train as well. Also, the commercial may lean into an appeal to false authority, since Eminem (a rapper) is known for his music and blunt honesty, not for his sudden expertise in tea. It may be treated as if he’s fully qualified to judge the quality of Brisk, almost making it seem as if his approval is a stamp of authenticity even though he has no special capabilities in beverages beyond drinking them.
In the end, the “Brisk Eminem Super Bowl Commercial 2011,” proves that Brisk’s bold marketing strategy actually worked. After looking at the Rhetorical Situation and the appeals used throughout the ad, it’s clear that Brisk knew exactly what it was doing when they paired a rebellious claymation Eminem with an already edgy brand. The ad successfully uses ethos to borrow Eminem’s credibility and pathos to make us the viewers laugh and slightly connect emotionally. More broadly, the commercial shows how powerful advertising can be when it's understood by us, the audience, and isn’t afraid to take risks. Yet it also highlights how brands like Brisk can even weave in hidden fallacies like Bandwagoning or appeal to authority, making the ad slightly unreliable, but not unbelievable or untrustworthy. However, if a funny clay version of Eminem convinces millions of Super Bowl viewers to give Brisk a try and taste, it says a lot about how creativity and a little crude humor can keep a brand relevant in an ever-changing market.
posted by Roman's Writing's @ October 19, 2026
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