What you know you can't
explain, but you feel it. You've
felt it your entire life, that
there's something wrong with
the world. You don't know what
it is, but it's there, like a splinter
in your mind, driving you mad.
~~Morpheus
Rhetoric is the art of influence,
friendship, and eloquence, of
ready wit and irrefutable logic.
And it harnesses the most
powerful of social forces,
argument. Whether you sense it
or not, argument surrounds you.
It plays with your emotions,
changes your attitude, talks you
into a decision, and goads you
to buy things. Argument lies
behind political labeling,
advertising, jargon, voices,
gestures, and guilt trips; it forms
a real-life Matrix, the supreme
software that drives our social
life. And rhetoric serves as
argument’s decoder.
~~Jay Heinrichs
Thank You For Arguing
Andrea's cerulean sweater in The
Devil Wears Prada
There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to
meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and
says “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish
swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the
other and goes “What the hell is water?”
from This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a
Compassionate Life by David Foster Wallace (2009)
Analyzing the RHETORIC
of Advertisements
Appeals to ETHOS
Appeals to ETHOS
Character
Appeals to ETHOS
Character
Credibility
Appeals to ETHOS
Character
Credibility
Expertise
Experts! Doctor-Endorsed! Prescription Strength!
The language of ETHOS
Appeals to LOGOS
Appeals to LOGOS
Reason
Appeals to LOGOS
Reason
Gets the audience to think
Appeals to LOGOS
Reason
Gets the audience to think
Evidence! Statistics! Facts!
Say AHHH? A type of
LOGOS appeal might
be to break our
expectations, upset a
normal pattern, or
make us do a “double
take” because we think
the text or image is one
thing, but it might
actually be / say
something else.
Oh! These are hands. Let me look
more closely! Let me think about
this ad more. I’ll remember it all day.
Wow. These are really
clever. And beautiful! My
goodness it’s also a play
on words and image—I’ve
got the world at my
fingertips—literally. How
clever. AT&T is a genius
company. They must be
really great. (That’s
LOGOS!)
Parodies or Irony are the realm of
logos. It requires mental work to
understand the advertisement. This
type of rhetorical appeal, by engaging
the audience’s reasoning skills, often
has a great pay-off because the
audience feels smart. The joke is not
on me! I’m above this nonsense.
Appeals to PATHOS
Emotion!
Vance Packard in his book The Hidden Persuaders (1964)
noted that advertising agencies turn to psychology to gain
insight as to why people react to messages in certain ways.
He identified eight motivations that persuaders often tap to
sell products:
Vance Packard in his book The Hidden Persuaders (1964)
noted that advertising agencies turn to psychology to gain
insight as to why people react to messages in certain ways.
He identified eight motivations that persuaders often tap to
sell products:
Need for emotional security
Need for reassurance of worth
Need for ego gratification
Need for creation outlets
Need for love objects
Need for a sense of power
Need for roots
Need for immortality
•Emotional Security
•Worth
•Ego
•Creativity
•Love objects
•Power
•Roots
•Immortality
Color Psychology
Black
Authority and power.
White
Innocence and purity.
Red
The most emotionally intense color, red stimulates a
faster heartbeat and breathing. It is also the color of
love.
Blue
Peaceful, tranquil blue causes the body to produce
calming chemicals, so it is often used in bedrooms.
Symbolizes loyalty. People are more productive in
blue rooms.
Green
Nature, fertility.
Yellow
Optimism, happiness
Purple
The color of royalty,
purple connotes luxury,
wealth, and
sophistication. It is also
feminine and romantic.
Brown
Solid, reliable, sad and
wistful.
Orange:
Energy, passion, appetite, joy
Why is the dominant color
a soft brown?
Why isn’t the eye looking
at me?
What does the sentence at
the bottom do to me?
What about the
lines in an
advertisement?
Curves, for
example, make us
think of beauty,
peace, grace.
What about the
lines in an
advertisement?
Curves, for
example, make us
think of beauty,
peace, grace.
Diagonal lines:
Imbalance,
anxiety, threat,
warning
Interpreting the ideology behind the ad.
Think about what story it’s trying to tell.
•What lifestyle is it promoting?
•What do you think about this philosophy of
living?
•What if you think the ad is doing the opposite of
what it’s trying to promote or sell?