Rhetorical Analysis of Campaign Ad – Guadalupe Perez

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCYN5MY5BHg

The audience for this 2020 campaign ad would be democrats, maybe young people as well. I believe this because Biden spoke on “healing America” and that is what a lot of people need right now. I also believe the audience for this ad would be young people because us young people are much into politics, given the circumstances we are in right now we are much more into politics, by circumstance I mean COVID, quarantine, racial injustices, trump…

This ad’s message is to promote “healing” to America. The argument this ad is making is that we are living through a crisis and we need leaders who will “heal” America. 

The feeling this ad evokes is awareness, hope, and healing of situations. It shows many pictures and videos from the last four months so people are aware of what this ad is speaking of 

This is a positive ad although it shows evidence of America in need of help I noticed that the sound that was being played in this ad sort of promoted hope. Also it speaks of how leaders will “heal” America which sounds pretty hopeful and positive to me, also it shows no gruesome photos or anything particularly negative. 

The visual elements of this ad contribute to its messaging because it shows visuals of climate change, such as homes and streets being overflooded. It also shows a short clip of trees on fire. Approximately thirty seconds after these visuals it shows Biden speaking to a man at a power plant and on fields where you see the sun shining and the grass green. The sun shining and the grass being green where he is speaking to another man is no coincidence, this is a visual representation of a better place (compared to the short clips shown a few seconds ago). You automatically see the change from disaster to a safe place where people are calmly speaking to each other. We also see Biden shaking another man’s hand which comes off as caring/respectful.

The persuasive techniques used in this ad would have to be ethos, pathos, and logos. I believe that all three were well employed. As we start off this ad we see logos, for example, stating the obvious facts… we definitely are in a crisis- climate, racial injustice, economic, and health. That is a fact. This Ad also shows us visuals to remind us we need help, In a way this is considered logic. Through the middle we see pathos which is a sense of emotion, we see pathos through a visual of people protesting with posters in their hands and hear voices stating “no justice, no peace”. This is obviously used to show emotion, and make us feel a certain way. Ethos is being employed by the word “leaders” being said and showing people shaking hands with each other which comes off as a sense of agreement/authority.

This ad has to be very successful because it used all three persuasive techniques. Also we are in a pandemic which means we really can’t do anything but just hope for the best we can get, which bidens shows much of in his ad.