TOW #19: Microsoft “Empowering Us All” Ad

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaOvHKG0Tio

In its “Empowering Us All” advertisement, Microsoft displays how far technology has taken us and ponders how far we can take it in future years. It uses rhetorical questioning, parallelism, and awe-inducing imagery in order to show how it has empowered many and to promote its own (Microsoft’s) influence on helping the world.

In this advertisement, Microsoft asks rhetorical questions in order to make viewers reflect on how far technology has taken us and how it has helped many. It asks, “What is technology? What can it do? How far can we go?” This questioning helps the reader think about the positive impact of technology on the world and on many in need. It instills awe in viewers as they realize how technology is empowering people to be the best they can be despite any disposition they might have.

These questions are, in a way, answered by using parallelism in order to instill more of a sense of awe, and drive its point into the readers that technology empowers. It says, “[Technology] gives hope to the hopeless. And it has given voice to the voiceless.” This parallelism, though short, has a huge impact on the viewers. It draws emotions of joy from the reader as it makes them realize that technology can help disabled people become less disadvantaged, as it gives something to them that they never had before.

However, this alone is not enough to draw as much emotion as the advertisement did. Its joy-provoking diction was coupled with awe-inspiring imagery in order to sell the point that Microsoft is leading this movement in socially impactful technology. Short clips of the disabled becoming abled with technology, such as a child given the ability to walk with prosthetic legs, a woman given hearing with cochlear implants, and a man given a voice with speech-generating technology, were played throughout the advertisement. This allows people to see the full effect of the positive impact of technology, and instills a sense of awe in the great things it has done. Much of the technology displayed in this advertisement comes from Microscope, which helps users to believe that Microsoft is the head of socially-impactful technology. This overall influences viewers to support Microsoft as consumers.

All in all, Microsoft’s “Empowering Us All” ad appeals heavily on the viewer’s pathos in order to invoke the joy and awe of technology. By doing this, it truly displays how technology empowers us all despite any disabilities.

Speech-Generating Device
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CDOkNvPUgAAilP-.jpg)