Examining D&D's Legacy Through Commercials

The Cold Open

Since its inception in 1974, the game known as Dungeons & Dragons has impacted various forms of nerdy popculture substantially. The game even inspired an entire genre of video games call Turn Based RPGs. If it weren't for the existance of D&D the most notible examples of this genre wouldn't exist, games like Final Fantasy, Crono Trigger, The Banner Saga, Octopath Traveler, Pokemon, & Fire emblem. D&D's influce of nerdy popculture doesn't just stop at video games. It's also showed up in a number of TV shows like Community, Sponge Bob, Futurama, Stranger Things, the Big Bang Theory, South Park, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Gravity Falls, Teen Titians Go, The IT Crowd, The Goldbergs, Voltron Legendary Defender, & even Key & Peele.

Given that D&D has ascended to the statis of a trope which entire episodes are written around, I became curious if the same could be said about TV comericals. So I began asking myself the following questions:

What rhetorical context and appeal might these comericals contain?

What elements of D&D do they use to make a rhetorical appeal to D&D players?

Is there a commonly held belief or sterotype about D&D that's represented in these comericals?

So I began searching for D&D themed comericals on YouTube.After a quick 15 minute search I found tree.

The first commerical I found featured a live action version of the cast from the 1983 D&D cartoon running through a collapsing cave from the Dragon Tiamat. Eventaully upon the 1983 party's exodus from the cave the Dragon Tiamat becomes trapped beneath the rubble of her collapsed mountian side lair. The 1983 party then strides accross a flat plain outlined by islands of floating rock where they are attacked by a lich riding atop an undead peagus. Suddenly a BS6 Renault KWID Outsider driven by the character known as "Dungeon Master" appears outta thin air. The 1983 party hops in and begins driving the BS6 Renault KWID towards a portal to the real world, eventually making it to saftey.

The second commerical I came accross was for a product called D&D Beyond, a digital character sheet ment to help D&D players stay organized while they play. The comericial uses a grovy giggle which refers to the players class, equipment, spells, magic items, and lack of orginization skills. The comercial then procedes to explain how a player could use D&D Beyond to improve their game before finishing the goovy jingle. While jiggle playied an animation of a party of adventures fighting knolls and a beholder in a cave filled the scrren for the viewers pleasure.

The thrid commerical I found, once again follows the exploits of the cast from the 1983 D&D cartoon. The comerical opens up with the shows intro and the character known as "Dungeon Master" instructing the 1983 party, and by extention the audicence to gaze into his crystal ball. Within his crystal ball we see clips from a comerical for the D&D movie: Dungeons & Dragons Honor Among Theives. The 1983 party then gasps excitly at this display, remarking them themselves "I bet they could help us get home". The 1983 party then see a live action cameo of themselves (which is honestly less impressive than the one shown in the BS6 Renault KWID Outsider commerical) and laments about how thy're represented and a easter egg in the film. The shows intro then shows up on screen and is immediately consumed by fire and replaced with the Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Amongst Theives logo.

Both the BS6 Renault KWID Outsider commercial and the Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Amongst Theives commerical relied on the rhetorical device of kairos to conyay their message. As both tried to build a sense of creditiblity and nostalgia buy using the 1983 Dungeon & Dragons show and its characters as a prop to sell a product. The D&D Beyond Commercial relied on the rhetorical device of pathos, as the commerical tried to use the feels of frustration one might feel while disorganized to sell it's product.

Unsuprisingly the Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Amongst Theives commerical choose to crap on the legacy of the 1983 D&D show, by forcing the 1983 party to exclaim how the movie's adventuring party was "cooler" than them. After which, then lamented how they were represented in the film. Only the D&D Beyond and the BS6 Renault KWID Outsider commercial choose to respectfully honor the values of camaraderie, imagination, and collabrative problem solving through their displays of adventures fighting and escaping deadly monsters.

All in all it was a fun experiment that took me to corners of the internet I didnt imagine visiting.