Rhetoric in Advertising
After seeing the three primary forms of rhetoric broken down in chapter four of Jay Heinrich's Thank You for Arguing, it is interesting to analyze how they're used in any given advertisement. Heinrich's example of how ethos, logos, and pathos can be used was a conversation with his son. He explained each of the three argument's could be applied and their purpose. After reading that, I couldn't help but look for these persuasive tools in any given advertisement. It almost makes English feel like a science. With the right formula, you get a product that is perfectly tailored to your audience. And, there's almost always a way to persuade any given audience. Although, if your rhetorical tools are misused, you're left with a botched product.
It is interesting to see how much that advertisements use rhetoric to persuade their audience. They use a lot of pathos to persuade you for example the one commercial that come to my mind is a dawn soap commercial. They used the oil spill in the gulf coast to make you want to save the animals affected by the oil. That is a big statement to make you want to buy dawn soap.
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