I recently responded to a fellow student in an English 102 about a Rosetta Stone advertisement, and actually found alot of information I thought was pretty darn cool...check it out
(Name ommitted for privacy),
I totally remember this add, in fact I saved it and it is in a school folder of mine (somewhere, though I doubt I could find it now in the mess I call my room). I first saw this ad. about three years ago when I was beginning to learning Italian, and I can definitely say I found it "reassuring". I think Rosetta definitely uses the typical looking farm boy as a type of pathos persuasion, encouraging readers to identify with this farm boy and his plight. By using such an insignificant cause to learn a language as simply wanting to impress an Italian super model, Rosetta stone increased the range of their audience. Rosetta Stone basically said, "sure, we are the best language learning company, used by all the most elite businesses everywhere, but we are also great for everyday people just like you", and apparently this form of persausion was very sucsessful. The add caught the eye of the performance artist Jeff Horwich, causing him to write a ballad of the Supermodel and the Farm boy, which he released on youtube in 2007 (see video below). The video received so much attention that he was invited to sing the song at the Rosetta Stone head quarters in VA, December 2008.
So many bloggers, facebook junkies and news paper columnists (i.e. Ian Frazier of the New York Times) then asked "what happened to the farm boy", that Rosetta Stone launched a new campaign in Janurary 2010 asking the public to upload videos finishing the story of the farm boy and the super model. The winning contestant will receive a "full 1 year subscription to Rosetta Stone TOTALe™" .
It's just amazing to see what good use of Pathos persausion can do.
