Essay 2: Rhetorical Analysis of an Advertisement For this essay, you will write a “rhetorical analysis” about an advertisement of your choosing. There are four ideas that you must consider before you write your paper. One of the easiest ways of analyzing an advertisement is by using Aristotle’s three appeals; the appeals provide a natural organization of the paper. You will use these three elements in addition to a discussion about the target audience to develop your essay. Aristotle’s Three Appeals: Ethos, Pathos, Logos For the purposes of this assignment, we will specifically consider the application of the three appeals to advertisement (below). 1. Ethos—the Ethical Appeal An advertisement or other visual text uses the trustworthiness and credibility of the author to make its appeal. Many times the ethos is the brand name itself—a brand we are familiar with itself may bring credibility. The advertiser may use someone famous or with expertise to present the advertisement. Politicians will often endorsements to provide credibility. Many times the ethical appeal is the weakest in an advertisement, however. 2. Pathos—Appeal to Emotions This appeal tries to get the reader to feel a particular emotion through the use of images, or words, or both. An advertisement typically wants us to be motivated to purchase the particular the particular item. The copywriters may do this by presenting images, colors, people, letters, or a combination of the above to evoke feelings of intrigue, happiness, or pleasure in some form. The images are often aimed at reminding us of other ideas or images. The appeal to emotions is often the strongest in an advertisement. 3. Logos—Appeal to Reason or Logic Advertisements will often try to present a logical appeal, using facts of one sort or another. For example, an advertisement might use claims that is the most popular brand or has won the most awards. It might claim the time to purchase the item is sooner rather than later because of the discounts its manufacturer is providing. 4. The Target Audience When talking about visual texts, you might also talk about who the target audience is—how young or old, how rich or poor, where they are from, and so on. Structure and Outline for Essay 2 Include your own sub‐points for each number when creating your outline. Notice that Brittany Gray's "Hanes Her Way" essay is an example of this assignment, so you can use it as a model if you're confused about this assignment. 1. An introduction talking about advertising based on what you've learned and what we discussed in class. You might quote from William Lutz’s “Weasel Words” in this part of your essay. 2. A thesis statement describing the argument you are making about the ad. (Your thesis should be one sentence that states which of the appeals is strongest and which are weakest. You might decide to place this near the end of your essay instead of near the end of your introduction.) 3. A paragraph providing an organized general description of the ad. 4. Three or more paragraphs about the strengths and weaknesses of the three appeals. 5. A paragraph that talks about the target audience. 6. A concluding paragraph that explains why one appeal is stronger than another. Your essay must:  be 2‐4 pages long (typed, double‐spaced).  be in MLA format. See the Essay 1 assignment page for how to do this on the first page of your essay.  include a Works Cited page with (at least) your chosen advertisement as a source.  provide at least a few paragraphs of background to explain the topic.  have a thesis statement that describes your argument about the ad. ***** From the Purdue University Online Writing Lab: How do I cite a YouTube video in MLA? The MLA does not specifically address how to cite a YouTube video. This has, it appears, led to some confusion as to the best method of for citing YouTube videos in MLA. Based on MLA standards for other media formats, we feel that the following format is the most acceptable for citing YouTube videos: Author’s Name or Poster’s Username. “Title of Image or Video.” Media Type. Name of Website. Name of Website’s Publisher, date of posting. Medium. date retrieved. Here is an example of what that looks like: Shimabukuro, Jake. "Ukulele Weeps by Jake Shimabukuro." Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 22 Apr. 2006. Web. 9 Sept. 2010.