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Elizabeth Gannon

Professor Granillo

English 103

26 May 2019

Sketchers “Easy”

The new sketchers slip on commercial is all about making life easy. The company uses a

famous professional athlete to show how easy his life is with these new shoes. The commercial

starts off with Tony Romo, a retired professional football player, saying that he likes his life easy

(“Sketchers:Easy”00:00:02). Then it goes on showing how easy his life is using different

examples (“Sketchers:Easy”00:00:05). At the very end he promotes the new sketchers slip on

shoes, emphasizing how easy they are to put on and wear (“Sketchers:Easy”00:00:16).

Their commercial aims to illustrate that the easy life is the better life; specifically when

Tony Romo says, “For those who like things easy” (“Sketchers:Easy”00:00:24). The company

uses a famous athlete to show how easy his life is with these new shoes. This will make the

audience want to buy these shoes because they want the same easy life that he has. The company

is trying to communicate to the audience that if you buy these shoes, your life will be as

glamorous and as easy as a famous athletes.

The Company is trying to persuade people of all ages because everyone has the option to

buy shoes for themselves. Sketchers uses Tony Romo in their commercial to specifically target

football fans that are old enough to know who the famous guy in the commercial

is(“Sketchers:Easy”00:00:02). Men do not typically wear slip-on shoes, so putting a manly pro

athlete in the commercial causes the male demographic to rethink what shoes they should buy.

They are also trying to pick out people who don’t want to do things for themselves
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(“Sketchers:Easy”00:00:05). The audience they are speaking to, are people that maybe won’t

admit they are lazy, but also want their lives to be just as easy as Tony Romo’s.

Sketchers commercial assumes that the audience knows who Tony Romo is. The

commercial does put a title under his name that says, “pro football legend”

(“Sketchers:Easy”00:00:02), but the ad is less effective in selling this product if the audience

doesn’t know the significance of what Tony Romo did in his football career. The company also

assumes that the audience wants everything handed to them. This commercial appeals to people

who are lazy, which leaves out the independent people who want to do things for themselves.

The last assumption made is that the audience desperately needs new shoes

(“Sketchers:Easy”00:00:15). The the targeted audience is mainly men who know who Tony

Romo is. The commercial is trying to persuade these men to rethink the shoes they normally

wear. Typically men have a couple pairs of shoes that they use for a very long time, making it

unlikely that the audience will need new shoes.

Other than the obvious goal of trying to get viewers to buy the new Sketchers slip-on

shoes, they are also encouraging the audience to pursue an easier life

(“Sketchers:Easy”00:00:17). They want the audience to feel like they are living a life that is

parallel to a famous athletes. The company proposes that the bridge between having an easy life

like a famous person and not, is buying these new Sketchers slip ons. Not only will the

audience’s life be easier if they buy these shoes, they will also have a life just like a famous

person’s.

The Sketchers commercial didn’t have the clearest tones within it, but the most evident

are humorous and direct. The commercial starts off making the audience laugh when showing

the scenarios of how life is easy for Tony Romo. Specifically funny when they show the tennis
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ball launcher for the dog (“Sketchers:Easy”00:00:08). At the end, the tone becomes more direct

when they start talking about the product and it’s features (“Sketchers:Easy”00:00:20). The tone

of humor mixed with a direct tone is effective because it is clear what the commercial is selling,

while also giving the audience something to smile about.

Pathos is ranked first because the commercial appeals to humor and masculinity. As

stated earlier they use humor in the commercial to make the audience smile and feel happy as

they are watching (“Sketchers:Easy”00:00:10). The connection made between laughter and

Sketchers will make it so subconsciously, the audience will think that they are happy whenever

they see Sketchers. They also tap into men’s masculinity, through the use of a manly football

legend like Tony Romo (“Sketchers:Easy”00:00:02). Men might want to buy Sketchers after

seeing this commercial because their hero, Tony Romo is wearing sketchers.

Ethos is ranked second because Sketchers use of a celebrity endorsement and their brand

name. The utilization of a famous football star is illustrating to the audience that Sketchers is a

successful company that is able to afford a celebrity endorsement (“Sketchers:Easy”00:00:01).

Putting Tony Romo in the commercial presents Sketchers in a wealthy light. This will make the

audience want to buy from Sketchers because they have good quality products, which then

boosts their credibility. Sketchers has been around for a long time and their company is well

known. They use their italicized Sketchers logo at the end of their commercials to put a stamp on

the audiences brain that connects the viewers with the company (“Sketchers:Easy”00:00:27).

Logos is ranked last because they use a little logic at the end of their commercial with

facts about the new shoe. They state that the new shoes have high tech memory foam for comfort

(“Sketchers:Easy”00:00:20). The use of logos gives the audience an understanding of what the
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product is. Also giving an explanation of the highlighted features helps the audience decide if

they want to buy this product from a practical stand point.

The biggest fallacy being used in this commercial is appeal to authority. Sketchers is

using a spokesperson as an “authority” figure to help persuade people to buy what the company

is selling. The audience sees that Tony Romo promotes these new Sketchers slip on shoes, so

they are being manipulated into thinking that these shoes have to be a good buy

(“Sketchers:Easy”00:00:02). Therefore, using an “authority” figure will manipulate the audience

into thinking that if they buy the product being promoted by that famous person, maybe there life

will become more fulfilling.