Prime Big game Commercial Rhetorical Analysis.

                     

                  How Prime’s Super Bowl commercial persuades Gen Z, and the Sports Industry. 

    Prime is a hydration drink company founded by two online influencers, KSI & Logan Paul. The two influencers were previous enemies, and fought in two boxing matches. The first match resulted in a draw, and the second match, KSI won. They shaked hands, squashed their beef, and allied. Hence is the creation of the  prime hydration drink. The drink was released in January 2022. Prime Super Bowl commercials effectively used Ethos, Pathos, and Logos to effectively persuade their target audience. People immediately lose interest when they don’t feel a sense of emotion in an ad(dopamine). With their famous ceo’s, KSI & Logan Paul, Prime deliberately used their voice in the first three seconds of the Ad. Viewers quickly get dopamine upon hearing them. The Ad illustrated a sample of gen Z hyping up the product with dramatic acts and chants. Also, they had top sport companies like the UFC, Arsenal, and WWE all conveying their partnership as an official drink.   The ad was a logical move because it was a Super Bowl commercial– they knew they would target a wide audience. Consciously, Prime used these strategies to elicit a sense of emotion, credibility, logic, and most importantly, fomo. The combination of these strategies turns the product attractive; it is in human nature that we chase things that we find appealing. 

     Prime used Ethos to establish a sense of credibility in their audience. Immediately, in the first three seconds of the Ad,  KSI and Logan Paul started the credibility journey with their voiceovers: “We....Have Created....Our own… Drink Company(excited tone)–with a clip illustrating Logan Paul, a WWE superstar hyped up, spitting the drink out his mouth while showing off his torso physique.” Upon seeing a sophisticated physique, viewers automatically start to trust the ad, which fundamentally creates credibility. After hooking their audience, they added two-three clips of Gen Z teenagers hyping up the product, some of them chanting, “ PRIME, PRIME, PRIME, PRIME, PRIME, PRIME.” The implementation was to target Gen Z specifically. Teenagers would find this Ad credible because their peers exaggeratedly approved of it . Then, the Ad showed KSI who is an entertainer and a boxer, thanks to the beef, knocking out his opponent with a prime banner in the background—with a voiceover of an announcer, saying, “ PRIME Is The Official U.F.C Drink” in an exciting and serious tone. This clip makes the company credible because the U.F.C is the biggest fighting company in the world(MMA promotion). Arsenal, a top soccer club, was another contract that was explicitly shown in the Ad, with, “KSI holding an Arsenal soccer jersey with the back illustrating Number one and Prime.” Audiences that know and follow this club, would find the brand credible. They didn’t stop, for they had clips of Logan Paul drinking prime while celebrating a knock down in WWE. Because WWE is regarded as the biggest wrestling sport in the world, the viewer would perceive the brand as highly trustable and credible. Influencers, in addition, approved of this Drink, which really marinated how effectively the Ad used Ethos appeal. 

    Prime enhanced their Ad with a pathos appeal. To win viewers over, one has to consciously bring forth an excellent opening, HOOK. Prime emotionally engaged their viewers within three seconds in the Ad; the Ad started with smooth cuts of the different flavors in an uncluttered dark environment with smoke, and with KSI and Logan Paul's voiceovers . The Brand overly exaggerated the emotions needed to persuade the target audience. In the ad, like stated in the ethos paragraph, prime had clips of teenagers overly chanting prime: “ PRIME, PRIME, PRIME, PRIME.” This was them insinuating the emotional connection that everyone in your age range likes it, so go buy it. The target audience, watching this particular clip, is forced to feel an emotional connection, and will feel obligated to buy it because Monkey see, monkey do. However, this is bound to be an informal fallacy because Gen Z are not expert nutritionists, so they can’t form an expert opinion on the drink. The company used the same idea to persuade the sports audiences, which not only includes Gen Z but ranges all the way to Gen X. First, starting with the clip of Logan Paul celebrating his knock down, in WWE with the drink, elicited a sense of excitement and pleasure. In other words, the WOW factor. KSI also knocked out his opponent, a strong left hook, in a professional boxing match, with a prime banner explicitly shown in the background. Viewers watching these clips will come to the conclusion that, “ to be this good at boxing or wrestling, I have to drink prime.”  Simply, we look up to influencers because of their success, and we will become successful ourselves if we follow their routines–This ultimately creates an emotional connection. In addition, each individual who is a fan of the sports, felt a sense of curiosity(emotion) about the drink being incorporated in their favorite sports. Curiosity, taste of the drink, will eventually lead them into buying the product. At last,  not only did the audience find the brand credible, but felt antsy to try the product. 

    Submitting this ad as a super bowl commercial was logical. Why? The Super Bowl LVII generated 115 million viewers(ESPN), and most of the viewers either play the sport, are fans of the sport or  other sports.  Viewers of the super bowl would find the ad appealing because the primary drink of American Football and sports, as a whole, was always gatorade. That being said, since people get bored of trying the same thing all the time, a move based on their emotions, would be to try a new, credible and exciting one. They purposely integrated highly credible sports in the Ad to present the drink as a new fantasy. Breaks between quarters meant their Ad, hydration drink, came on. The Ad very much correlated with the overall theme of the event ( sports, and hydration drink);  It is almost like the Ad weren’t Ads because the audience would still be watching a component of a sports(Hydration) afterall. However, what if a viewer of this ad wasn’t watching the superbowl? Would they still be persuaded? Absolutely, before prime's entry, in 2021-2022, the hydration industry was dominated by gatorade— monopoly. This Ad would present viewers with a different type of  hydration drink; It is always nice to move away from a prolonged state to a better state that provides instant pleasure. If we take it further, every clip that illustrated credibility was logical. Our behavior is determined by our environment. If a teenager watches a clip of his peers dramatically chanting prime, then, he will code-switch. The logic behind the ad is very logical. 

    The brand successfully used the core mode of persuasion to attract their target audience. Viewers that watched the Ad, would find the ad credible and emotionally connect with it. The Ad was very logical based on the entry point, and the correlation with the Super Bowl; However, the Ad persuaded people that could watch the ad. Ironically, those that didn’t watch the ad, still got persuaded. As the French philosopher Michel de Montaigne wrote, “The customs and practices of life in society sweep us along.” We conform our habits and beliefs to the one of society because we want acceptance and approval. For example, since the persuaded audience was so vast, everywhere you go, you’ll see a bottle of prime. Your friends will have it, so why wouldn’t you try it? Essentially, not only did the characters and contracts approve of the drink, but society approved of it as a whole. Ultimately, you’re destined to try a bottle. In addition, society started consuming the product rapidly because they’ve gotten persuaded by the taste also. This is exactly why big companies like Coca Cola are still in the market in this new age. The drinks are engineered by experts, so that when we drink their drink, with a combination of sensation, we feel dopamine. Even if the food or the drink is unhealthy, with dopamine, we keep coming back. The loop never ends.

        

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Work Cited

Cleveland Clinic. “ Dopamine.” https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/22581-dopamine. Accessed October 18 2026.

ESPN. “ Super Bowl LVII was the most-watched telecast ever.” nfl, https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/36920001/super-bowl-lvii-was-most-watched-telecast-ever-according-updated-data.  Accessed October 11 2026. 

“Most Viewed Sports YouTube Channels Worldwide.” AiFreeForever, https://aifreeforever.com/chart/youtube/top-sports-channels?tab=views#channels. Accessed October 11 2026

“MMA promotion ranking.” FightMatrix, https://www.fightmatrix.com/features/mma-promotions-ranking. Accessed October 18 2026 

“Logan Paul and KSI--Prime’s Big Game Commercial.” YouTube, 12 Feb 2023, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebha0MzwtU8.