Rhetoric Analysis of Supersize Me

Rhetoric Analysis of Supersize Me

Nowadays, fast foods cause major problems for Americans. In the documentary Supersize Me, Spurlock experiments the impacts of eating excess fast food. He decides to take fast foods in McDonald’s in a span of thirty days to determine its effect on his health. Being healthier at his age, his health drastically degenerates after partaking the fast food from the restaurant. Despite that, he also focuses on investigating the contemporary issues that rhyme with the consumption and sale of fast food. Therefore, the documentary emphasizes the increment of the obese cases among Americans, the ignorance associated with fast foods, and the differences in the responsibilities between people and corporations in health matters. Morgan applies various techniques, such as interviewing people, uses a logical approach while documenting the Spurlocks health activities during the experiment, pathos, and logos use to make persuade audiences, and developing credibility and trust among the audiences.

Firstly, the documentary involves interviewing various people such as students and health practitioners. The interviews help at giving out diverse opinions from people (Spurlock, n.p.). The interviews with ordinary people are conducted anonymously from the city lawns and streets based on how regularly they consume fast foods, their favorite fast food delicacies, and the consistency of taking them. In the interview with the primary students, Morgan compares them with certain images of people, both real and fictitious. The students have little knowledge about George Washington, and amazingly no one recognizes a Jesus Christ image (Spurlock, n.p.). However, each student recognizes the image of Ronald McDonald. Both of the ordinary people and the secondary students cannot define the term calorie as used in food concept. The interviews established the general ignorance of people and their contribution to obesity in the country.

Notably, the interviews in the documentary follow a logical order.  For example, the labeling of the number of days, especially while ordering or eating at McDonald’s. The indication of the number of days gives the audience a perspective on how long Morgan has been on diet and the health impacts it has on him (Spurlock, n.p.). It helps for proper filming as well as tracking Morgan’s health progress. The documentary also shows Morgan in several medical examinations, starting with preliminary exams then followed by other check-ups. During the check-ups, medical information is revealed to the audiences to showcase his medical condition. Each medical check-up reveals the deteriorating health of Morgan. The health condition of Morgan worsens before even the end of the thirty days. Therefore, it explains the negative impacts of eating excess fast foods. He shares his feeling of getting moody and tiresome to show the audience how fast food affects him both emotionally and physically.

Additionally, Morgan uses logical statistics to explain his arguments. He indicates the number of McDonald’s restaurants available, as well as the amount of money, channeled towards the advertisement of the fast foods annually (Spurlock, n.p.). Therefore, the documentary gives knowledge to the audience and helps them realize the critical issues addressed by the film. The information used in the documentary is simple and easy to follow. For example, during the interviews with experts, the documentary uses statistics to either support or contradict the information given.  It gives the audience to comprehend the opinions given that differ from the statistics. The audiences also get surprised by the information highlighted in the documentary (Spurlock, n.p.). For example, he addresses the proposed healthy alternatives to fast foods such as salads. He profounds also that the alternatives are not much healthier for people. Therefore, there exist no healthy foods at fast-food restaurants.

Notably, the arguments in the film get elaborated by the usage of emotional appeals. Emotional appeals help in disgusting scenes (Spurlock, n.p.). For example, he supersizes his meal on day two of the experiment. Based on the established regulations, he eats the supersized meat almost for twenty minutes, whereby he vomits it. The filming of the vomiting scene on the parking lot gives the audiences to have the emotional appeal of the negative effects of having supersized meals. The average person must eat the required food amount to sustain his/her health. The showcasing of a hair in the yogurt parfait indicates that the fast foods are not carefully prepared, thus unhygienic (Spurlock, n.p.). The audience also has a clear visual perspective, especially when he eats fast food with high sugar and fat content. During the surgical procedure undertaken, it gives emotional appeal to the audience on how much fat content exists in an obese person. The background song “The Blue Danube” helps at making the scene more emotional for the audience.

Additionally, the film makes the use of humor and comic relief. The humorous songs poke fun to the McDonalds restaurant corporation. At the beginning of every chapter, a comic drawing of McDonald’s is displayed. For example, “The Last Supper” chapter indicates the biblical parody with McDonald’s restaurant surrounded by cartoon characters. The use of humor and comic enables the audiences to enjoy the documentary. Morgan’s personality plays a major role in the documentary. Throughout the documentary, Morgan is serious in an informal way to make the audience relate to him emotionally (Spurlock, n.p.). He acts in a humourous manner to make the film interesting. By undertaking medical check-ups and giving out the information makes the audience believes in his actions. Therefore, he earns audience respect by establishing credibility.

Additionally, Morgan establishes credibility by analyzing fast foods in corporations. The business corporations have the tendency of defending themselves from the effects that they cause to the people (Spurlock, n.p.). For example, he highlights the concept of McDonald’s opinion on the importance of fast foods in a healthy diet. The interview with lobbying representatives gives a vivid description of their protection to fast food corporations. The interview with Don Gorske gives an effective way of not showcasing bias in the case study. Despite him eating 19,000 Big Macs in his life, he is physically fit. The main purpose of the interview was to give the audience a perception that not all people who eat fast foods are obese. Mr. Gorske eats fast foods without having side drinks, which highly contribute to high calories. Therefore, while people can still eat fast foods, it is important to maintain a proper diet.

Rhetoric Analysis of Fathead

The documentary fathead by Naughton focuses on giving out the stellar model portrayed by the media regarding the obesity epidemic in America. He examines the exact cause of the weight gain and the government’s nutritional guidelines restrictions. He argues that both the United States government and Morgan give misleading information regarding obesity. Naughton uses efficient bias movie techniques and muting certain characters, who give contrary opinions. He invites parents and medical experts to his film. Naughton refutes Morgan’s criticism of McDonald’s by requesting his food log (Gravitas, n.p.). The on-screen accounting in the film indicating the number of hanged up calls shows that the representatives of Supersize me does not recognize him. Therefore, the audience is given an impression of believing that Morgon is a liar since he does not provide the food log to Naughton.

Despite, the mentioning of the Morgan, he does not give his opinions, thus making Naughton experiment to be biased (Gravitas, n.p.). Additionally, the Fathead portrays Spurlock negatively by the use of ineffective body language while criticizing Supersize me. Mostly, Naughton has his hands on his hips with his eyebrows inclined. The gesture connotes anger. The audience perceives through Naughton’s aggression that the information addressed in Super Size Me is mendacious, readily accepting Naughton’s invited reading (Gravitas, n.p.). The camera employment at the medium, eye-level shot makes the audience to interact with the  Naughton. The sense of the closeness earns him credibility as well as giving the intended knowledge to the audience.

Decide and argue which documentary was the most persuasive and why?

The documentary Supersize by Morgon Spurlock is more persuasive than that of Fathead by Naughton. Spurlock makes appeals to all rhetoric triangles of the film. He gives vast information and statistics to support his arguments. Furthermore, he appeals to the audience’s emotions, especially in the disgusting scenes. More so, he uses several pictures and songs to create comic relief and humor among the viewers. In his experiment, Morgan interviews all sets of people from ordinary, students, to the medical experts. He also acts informal but remains effective in his arguments through his credibility establishment. Lastly, he makes counter-argument to the person who continually eats at McDonald’s, and he is still healthy. The Naughton documentary tends to be biased since it avoids direct engagement with other people. There exist several restricted audiences for the literature.