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Jordan Thompson
Mrs. Weaver
RHE-101-01
11/13/2014
Rhetorical Analysis Essay
I have chosen to examine LeBron Jamess new Nike commercial as my text. I will
discuss the annotations regarding my advertisement, and how certain elements are interacting in
the commercial to make meaning of its rhetorical situation. I shall also discuss the reasoning,
consequences, and interactions of the text and rhetor/audience. I will share my examination of
the message/theme through the rhetorical elements discussed previously, from the commercial.
More importantly I want to discuss the aspects that are essential to the advertisements rhetoric
situation.
The commercial is called "Together," and it features LeBron James and his new Cavalier
teammates. The commercial begins with LeBron and his teammates being introduced to the
home crowd before he gives a pregame speech to his teammates. As hes giving the pregame
speech, fans walk onto the court to join the huddle. Essentially the entire city of Cleveland
begins huddling up to celebrate the Homecoming of LeBrons first game back in Cleveland. The
commercial peaks when James leads the city through a two-part chant of "Hard work, together."
"Every single night, every single practice, every single game we gotta give it everything we got,
because they're gonna ride with us," James utters to his team. "Everything we do on this floor is
because of this city. We owe it to them"

LeBron then leads the crowd in a chant of "Hard work, together" as the music begins to
build. Soon afterwards the people of Cleveland emerge and begin to join in, uniting from every
alleyway and intersection.
On the day LeBron James made his return to the Cleveland Cavaliers, Nike had released
its newest commercial, which celebrates the pride and emotion felt around the city of Cleveland.
The message in my personal opinion is chilling. Together. One city. One goal. The commercial
included some of Clevelands most noticeable landmarks like The Q, Terminal Tower and
restaurants along East Fourth Street. The advertisement does a tremendous job of capturing the
emotional impact of LeBrons return home. Weather your fan or not, there is denying LeBrons
greatness. I believe the commercial does a great job of showing his dedication and love for his
city and community. Depending on how you take it, the new ad is seen as uplifting and
emotional. The idea of the prodigal son, returning back home to lift the fallen city of Cleveland
on his shoulders once again. Personally I believe its good for Cleveland. It's been a minute since
they have had something to cheer about.
Despite his longtime association with Nike and his on-court greatness, LeBron has yet to
star in any real iconic commercial. That changed when he presented this very powerful and
inspirational commercial titled "Together. Nike Basketball was able to launch this film, which
celebrated the pride and emotion of LeBron James's return to Cleveland. More importantly the
timing of the ad was perfect, as LeBron was set to make his return to Cleveland, Nike debuted
the heart stopping ad. I admire the idea, that theyre all in this together. One team. One city. One
goal. Watching this commercail makes me appreciate how brilliantly LeBron orchestrated his
return to Cleveland. Even if his return was more about basketball, than the allure of going home
and bringing Cleveland a championship.

Nike was able to produce a fantastic ad, with one of the most polarizing athletes on the
planet. LeBron has been the most popular basketball player of my generation, and is well
qualified to speak on basketball. Nike successfully caught the attention of their basketball
audience, by promoting LeBrons homecoming story. They did a nice job of capturing the
audience by shedding light to an emotional story of an inspirational athlete.
The advertisement was also able to capture the emotion of the audience. This film was
particularly powerful, mostly due to unity of Cleveland. LeBron does gives an powerful speech
which has a very powerful impact on the audience. I applaud them for being able to sway the
audience by capturing the citys inspiration behind LeBrons dedication to bringing a Cleveland
a championship.
However I do feel like they couldve done a better job of appealing the logic of the
advertisement. There were hardly any facts described and figures that support the rhetors claim
or thesis. However logos can be misleading and inaccurate, making it seem like meaningful
subject at hand.
I like how the video shows Cavalier fans joining LeBron and his teammates before the
start of the home opener game. I enjoyed the crowds cheering in an uproar of excitement and
celebration of his return to Cleveland. Then the unity of Cleveland residents takes the cake, when
they begin noticing the movement and join in on the unity outside the Arena. LeBron Jamess
Nike commercial is an amazing ad. It has several elements behind it that make it this
advertisement a very special rhetorical situation. I found this paper to be very challenging to
discuss the reasoning, consequences, and interactions of the film. My examination of the
advertisement, through the rhetorical elements helped me discuss how touching this ad was.

More importantly I was glad to discuss the all aspects that made essential this advertisement
special.

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