Persuasion Techniques in Dwayne Johnson’s “Got Milk?” Advertisement

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Table of Contents

Introduction
General Persuasive Strategy
Cialdini’s Weapons of Influence
Rhetoric
Argumentation
Conclusion
References

Introduction

The “Got Milk?” Campaign features Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, a well-known actor and WWE Champion. Dwayne collaborated with the Mustache Company to demonstrate that milk should be an essential priority for all parents. The advertisement was aired during the 2013 Super Bowl Commercial. The famous “Got Milk?” Campaign dates back to 1993 (Sunset, 2008), yet it is growing strong today with the likes of Dwayne Johnson.

General Persuasive Strategy

The theory behind the “Got Milk” campaign is that the only time people want to drink milk is when they have run out of it. The advert aims at changing the attitudes of people towards milk consumption, connecting milk to cereals, and making the public buy milk more often (Sunset, 2008).

The advert uses video footage of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. It combines the video with a music track to demonstrate the importance of a parent getting milk for his family during breakfast.

The ad builds an entertaining, yet inspiring piece that has the potential of persuading viewers to associate Dwayne’s healthy, admirable body to his daily routine of drinking milk. People seek Dwayne’s help because he is a professional wrestler, but he feels that getting milk for his family should come before anything else.

Cialdini’s Weapons of Influence

According to Cialdini, “we most prefer to say yes to the requests of people we know and like” (2001: 144). In line with Cialdini’s work, the “Got Milk?” Campaign makes strong use of weapons of ‘authority’, ‘social proof’, and ‘liking’. The advertisement uses the 40-year-old famous actor and professional wrestler. The advertisement has a way of appealing to the audience of all ages, both young and old.

The film starts with Dwayne’s three daughters having a cereal breakfast. Dwayne checks in the fridge and discovers that there is no milk. He tells the girls, “We are out of milk,” and the girls respond in disbelief. Dwayne stomps out of the house in his pajamas and follows the milk delivery truck. A young girl asks him to rescue a cat, but he apologizes and continues to follow the truck.

He encounters a bank robbery, but he lets the robbers escape. He also encounters the chaos and havoc in the city, but he does not stray from his quest for milk. He gets the truck and asks the driver for milk. He reaches home with the milk, drinks a glass of it and leaves the rest for the children.

The words, “Proteins to start your day” show on the screen as he drinks the glass of milk. Dwayne says, “Ladies, gotta go to work” while easily striking an unknown creature on the window.

While previous milk campaigns focused on people who did not drink milk, the “Got Milk?” Campaign focuses on people who are already drinking milk (Sunset, 2008). The element of ‘social proof’ manifests in the general desire for physical fitness and good health by the public (Maguire and Mick, 1999: 11). Dwayne demonstrates a perfect illustration of an admirable body.

The advertisement shows that milk contains essential nutrients for breakfast, and it should be the top priority for every parent. Dwayne struggles to ensure that he gets a milk bottle for his family. The advert shows that drinking milk is a daily routine for Dwayne, and that is why he has admirable physical attributes.

He makes milk his top priority, even when the city is coming down, showing that the secret behind his healthy self and family is milk. He does not make any attempt to fight the aliens until he drinks a glass of milk.

The ad also uses the strategy of ‘authority’, showing complimentary food without milk. The children are eating cereals. However, they respond in disbelief when their father tells them, “We are run out of milk.” The advert persuades the audience that milk must compliment other foods.

The words “Protein to start your day” reinforce this by indicating that milk adds essential nutritional elements to one’s meal. The advertisement, therefore, shows that a morning meal is not complete without a glass of milk. The ad portrays Dwayne as a responsible parent who is conscious about the well-being of his family.

The third weapon of influence is that of ‘liking’. Dwayne has a close-to-perfect athletic body which many people admire. He is a famous actor and professional wrestler with admirable physical attributes. His craving for milk has a way of appealing to people who admire his physical attributes.

The advertisement demonstrates that Dwayne’s healthy living is the reason behind his ability to confront all challenges in life. People believe that Dwayne can rescue a cat, stop a bank robbery and fight aliens because of his masculine physique.

The people watching this advertisement will be feel that getting a healthy body involves making a glass of milk a daily routine. Thus, he says, “Ladies, I got to go to work” after drinking the glass of milk. Milk gives him the essential nutrients to start his day.

The advertisement introduces signifiers which act as the chief vehicle of meaning. Semiotics plays an important role in advertising since the advertiser addresses various signs (Herrick, 2009: 128). The signs help to appeal to the consumers so that they participate or believe in the advertisement campaign. The audience identifies with the ideologies used in the advertisement while actively taking part in the process.

Rhetoric

The “Got Milk?” advertisement has a lot of exaggeration with humor that emphasizes the significance of milk. The advertisement eventually targets average families in the United States.

The rationale behind the advertisement is that milk is a necessity in normal American families. In the starting of the film, the featuring of a parent and three children suggests a home-like setting. This demonstrates that the target audience for this advertisement is a traditional American family.

According to Maguire and Mick (1999: 8), a celebrity is an abstract symbol that represents the aspirations of the public because he has all that viewers want. The use of Dwayne with a masculine physique symbolizes the role of a parent as protective and dependable. This is what all advertisers aim at portraying to their audience. Dwayne acts as a superhero for his family.

He ensures that his family comes first before his neighbors and those in needy and emergency situations. This concept of domestic classification shows the importance of milk in an average American household. Dwayne signifies an ideal American parent. The advertisement reinforces the cultural norm that parents need to supply their children with sufficient nutrients contained in milk.

Another aspect that ensures that people identify and participate in the advertisement is the clothes that Dwayne wears. Dwayne wears blue pajamas bottoms and a grey T-shirt. This suggests that Dwayne is neither exceptionally wealthy nor necessarily poor. His clothing shows that the product is affordable in the United States society.

The advertisement also uses symbolism to demonstrate the strength of Dwayne. The woman asks Dwayne to deliver her from a lion because she believes that Dwayne is stronger than a lion. The advertisement aimed at connecting Dwayne’s super heroic attributes to his daily routine of drinking milk.

As a result, Dwayne does not attack the lion because he has not drunk a glass of milk. The words on the screen “Protein to start your day” reinforces his ideology that he must quench his craving for milk before going out to save the world.

The advertisement uses the aspect of humor to captivate the audience (Herrick, 2009: 125). The manner in which Dwayne puts down emergency situations in the city to get the milk delivery truck is humorous. When he gets milk, he takes it home, and drinks a long glass of it while easily punching aliens on the window. The exaggeration helps to catch the attention of the audience.

Argumentation

The core of this “Got Milk?” advertisement is Dwayne Johnson’s determination to ensure that there is enough milk for his household. He drinks milk while easily punching the aliens on the window, and then goes out to save the world. This demonstrates his praiseworthiness. In parallel, it demonstrates the praiseworthiness of the Mustache Company, whose slogan is ‘Protein to start your day’.

The advertisement has elements of camera trickery that exaggerate the whole film. What makes the advertisement convincing is the use of a professional WWE Champion who demonstrates that milk contains essential nutrients that contribute to his success. The advertisement uses factual nutritional information which helps support the argument.

Conclusion

The advertisement is carefully designed and executed to demonstrate that the success of Dwayne Johnson in wrestling attributes to his daily routine of drinking milk. The advertisement does not aim at convincing people who do not drink milk but those who already drink it.

The advertisement uses rhetoric to capture the attention of the audience and identify with the cultural perceptions of the American society. The advertisement ends by linking Dwayne’s admirable masculine physique to his daily routine of drinking milk.

References

Cialdini, R, B., 2001. Influence: Science and Practice. London: Allyn and Bacon Press.

Herrick, J. A., 2009.The history and theory of rhetoric: An introduction. 4th ed. London: Pearson Education, Inc.

Maguire, E. and Mick, Dickson, G., 1999. ‘Visual Rhetoric in Advertising: Text- Interpretive, Experimental, and Reader-Response Analyses’, Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 1-13.

Sunset, B., 2008. Got Milk? Campaign. Marketing Campaign Case Studies. Web.

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