I was recently watching TV/procrastinating and noticed an interesting advertisement for a funeral services company whose name I cannot remember and cannot find online anywhere. Instead, I’ve provide you with a different funeral related video that is no less interesting and a good way to spend 10 minutes instead of reading my blog.

The advertisement comprised of snippets from interviews of different people, saying things like “there would have to be fairy bread” and “I’d have one of those big floaty men outside” and more. The advertisement leads the audience to think that these people are talking about hosting a party, which I also believed, however at the end it reveals that these people were talking about their own funeral.

Personally, I felt a bit betrayed as I’d been excited about the prospect of parties and fairy bread and funerals were the last thing I wanted to think about at that point in time. Then I thought that the advertisement was a great example of manipulating audience expectations to present an argument (in this case, sell a service), and was thus also a good example of rhetorical form in non-narrative film. I think it uses a subject centred argument, which according to Bordwell and Thompson in Film Art, An Introduction (2006) say “ appeals to beliefs common at a time in a given culture.” (p. 349). I would propose that the dominant belief in 21st century Australian culture is that funerals should be personal and reflect the life and desires of the person they are commemorating, which the advertisement appeals to in an attempt to persuade the audience that this service is right for them and their loved ones, as it recognises this value.