Don't Touch My Mama

“Don’t touch my Doritos." For the 2010 Super Bowl, Doritos put out a commercial that was titled “House Rules”. In this commercial a young man comes to take a beautiful young, single mother out for their first date. While the mother is out of the room putting up the flowers the man brought, the man sits down to socialize with the son. As the man sits down he picks up one of the son’s Doritos, and just as he is about to put the chip in his mouth the son slaps him. After slapping the man the son says, “Don’t touch my mama, and don’t touch my Doritos.” This 2010 Super Bowl Doritos commercial is an example of visual rhetoric, because it appeals to the audience using pathos, ethos, and what the camera focuses to not just persuade the viewers to buy Doritos, but also to keep Doritos on the viewer’s mind. This commercial uses pathos mostly through the son. You begin to see the use of this particular appeal when the man admires the mother’s back side as she walks away. The son stands up, scowling at the man, and drops his game controller. This shows that the son is mad or does not have a welcoming attitude toward the man. The audience either connects with the son feeling his animosity toward the man or laughs at the child’s reaction. When the son drops the controller there is also a feeling of tension, or suspense, signally that something is about to happen. The commercial also uses laughter as a technique of pathos. When the son slaps the man and “lays down” the rules, the audience laughs at the unexpected actions of the boy. Along with pathos the commercial also uses ethos to connect with the viewer. There is a sense of protection of his mother and his Doritos chips. The viewer can tell the boy is protective because of the boys’ actions and the way he says his “house rules”. As the son is telling the man “Don’t touch my mama, and don’t touch my Doritos.” he is in the man’s face scowling, putting down one finger for each “house rule”. Furthermore, by slapping the