Old Spice Commercial

Ch.1 & Ch.2

Rhetoric is a term that can be used to define any technique used to persuade a certain audience to believe or follow the ideas or beliefs of the writer or artists who created the rhetorical message. The most effective way to persuade your audience successfully is by understanding your audience’s likes and dislikes and what visual techniques (colors, shapes, sizes, etc.) would most likely influence your audience to see and want to know more about your product or idea. Many advertisements use rhetoric to make a specific audience buy the business’s products. Political cartoons use rhetoric to create different emotions within the reader of the cartoon, to make the reader think deeper into the subject. 

Logos is a rhetorical device that uses statistics or facts to persuade an audience. Pathos is a rhetorical device that appeals to a person’s emotions. Some examples of pathos are in commercials such as the SPCA commercial (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lFm2o4nAEc). In this commercial the use of a slow, sad song and pictures of injured or helpless-looking animals are used as pathos because it appeals to people’s emotions and makes the viewer feel bad and want to help the cause. Ethos is a rhetorical device that appeals to authority. Examples of ethos include, Nike’s swoosh, the Burger King’s king, Wendy’s red-headed girl, Apple’s apple, McDonald’s golden arches, and many more. There are many rhetorical devices used to persuade specific audiences to buy a product or believe in an idea.