You’ve read about logos, pathos and ethos in “What is Rhetoric,” as well as rhetorical conventions. Now, look around you. Find an example from the world around you (or the world within your screen)–an advertisement, a photo, a product label–that exemplifies one of Aristotle’s “Big Three.” Post an image or link in the comments section, and then 1) state what concept this piece of media is appealing to, and 2) name at least one rhetorical convention that this piece of media is using, and explain why.
22 thoughts on “What is Rhetoric? due Thursday, 9/5”
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https://static.adweek.com/adweek.com-prod/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/pepsi-atlanta-super-bowl-hed-page-2019.jpg
1.) This piece is from the Super Bowl and appeals to everyone watching the big game. It targets those who are thirsty and how a nice cold can of Pepsi is refreshing. Since it is a Super Bowl ad it targets a large amount of the United States.
2.) This appeals to ethos as it states in the ad it is the official soft drink of the Super Bowl. This conveys the image that since it is the official soft drink of the big game you can trust the product to be rehashing. It makes sense to be the official soft drink as that is what they would be selling at the arena and while watching the game the ads would tell the audience that Pepsi is the official soft drink making them more trusting to the brand.
https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/watchmen1-1561405767.jpg?crop=1.00xw:0.502xh;0,0&resize=1200:*
1)This is Rorschach (Walter Kovacs) from the comic book series Watchmen. To those who know psychology, it calls to the nature of his worldview. The comic itself appeals to those who were sick of the then 80s idealistic heroes.
2)Rorschach (Walter Kovacs) is logos, pathos, and ethos all rolled into one messed up package. In regards to logos, Rorschach tends to have bad reasoning as he fails to decipher Ozymandias’ scheme (he believes that an old villain is targeting heroes and that he and his former colleagues are in danger) in contrast to his “friend” Nite Owl (Dan Dreiberg) and tends to see women as either victims or as succubi (entirely in extremes). In regards to Ethos, Rorschach is questionable as he refuses to accept compromise and sees fellow hero Sally Jupiter as a whore. For Pathos, let’s just say that his mask best symbolizes his actual face. His tragic backstory (an extremely neglectful mother and a young girl who he failed to save while he was still a young hero) only adds to this.
https://blog.prepscholar.com/hs-fs/hubfs/body_point.jpg?width=600&name=body_point.jpg
1. Although this image does not have any words, it says plenty. This picture is portraying the bullying of kids and how it can affect them in a deep way. It shows the pain that a child has to go through when he/she is being bullied or made fun of.
2. This image is portraying pathos because it uses emotion to get the message across. When looking at this image you can see that the little boy is crying because of the hand being pointed to him. These hands are connected to the kids who are making fun of this boy. The message is that when a kid is bullied, it will affect them in depressing ways even though they may not show it. Pathos is used in this image to make people want to stop bullying and make them feel some type of way about this on going problem.
1)https://i.pinimg.com/236x/0d/42/2d/0d422d3d95dc8d7da638fa8d12e681a2–child-labour-political-art.jpg
This is a carton that takes the slogan of the famous athletic manufacturer Nike. In ,any of it’s campaigns it uses the slogan “Just do it” and it portrays how children are working in unsanitary conditions having to produce these products for consumers.
2) Logos is used as the author is appealing to the audience by showing ideas of how children are being worked in certain parts of the world due to their own respective situations, placing them under harm and most likely under unsanitary conditions. Pathos is also used as emotions are shown as a little girl is working on a sneaker. Girls of that age are usually protected by parents as they raise them and provide without having them to work. However this child works in a factory from such a young age shows the hardships that are dealt with by this individual.
https://i.pinimg.com/236x/0d/42/2d/0d422d3d95dc8d7da638fa8d12e681a2–child-labour-political-art.jpg
https://www.lakeexpo.com/news/politics/no-texting-while-driving-signs-go-up-in-sunrise-beach/article_69666408-1906-11e9-9599-bbdc1bf29060.html
(the image^)
1. This media is appealing to anyone on the streets: the drivers, passengers, and pedestrians crossing. All people are attracted to this street sign because all know the true value of life and would not risk it by texting and driving.
2. Ethos, “emotional appeals to an audience” (Join the Conversation, Baruch College), is used here. As stated earlier, everyone has a soft spot for the true value of human life, and unfortunately, too many people know too many stories about others who were killed via someone who was texting and driving. This sinks in with people when they see it.
https://www.chappatte.com/prod/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/I170830-small-900×593.jpg
1. This image is a political cartoon about climate change and shows a man drowning in a flood. The coal mines and other areas of the drawing show why the area was polluted. The main idea and powerful message shows that no one wants to take action against climate change until its too late, and the damage is beyond irreversible. It appeals to climate activists as well as the general public to make them aware of the dangers of our changing climate.
2. Pathos is used here because the cartoon is appealing to people’s emotions. It is meant to get a reaction from the public, and make them want to take a stand against climate change so that their life does not end because of a polluted Earth. By taking an emotional stance it better sparks a reaction to the general public viewing it.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1d/Unclesamwantyou.jpg/1200px-Unclesamwantyou.jpg
1) Back when the United States were dealing with World War 2 this famous photo of Uncle Sam shows how he is pointing at his audience and he wants them to join the army. This poster is meant to influence any citizen into joining the army to fight in World War 2.
2) This poster is considered to be pathos since its convincing people to join the war and creates a good emotion between the audience and Uncle Sam because the way he is pointing his finger will mentally impacts U.S. citizens in a positive way.
http://amyljones.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Humane-Society-Mag-Ad.jpg
1. This photo is appealing to the concept of adopting, sheltering, and helping animals in need. It’s urging people to volunteer at the Humane Society Center of Illinois to rescue and care for these animals as “without help,(this) isn’t possible.”
2. This photo is clearly using pathos and a bit of ethos. The key focal point of the advertisement is the enlarged picture of a sad dog with its eyes watering. The most emphasized words are “I need you” making the audience feel singled out and more inclined to read the rest. This can appeal to a person’s emotions to make them feel pity and encourage them to help. This ad also uses ethos in the way it states that thousands of animals are rescued and brought into these shelters every year. Both are used to convince the audience that the animals need their help to keep this process going.
https://i2.wp.com/operationrainfall.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/supersmashbrosultimatefeatured.jpg?fit=1280%2C720
The concept that this advertisement is appealing to is the gaming audiences including competitive and casual gamers as well as fans of the respective game series that crossed over to make this game.
This commercial appeals to the pathos of people because this commercial brings the wonderful memories the consumers had while playing the games involved in this game crossover.
https://www.deviantart.com/dilly-park/art/Anti-smoking-PSA-188192030
1. This photo is appealing to the concept of smoking causing absurd amounts of deaths each year. It encourages people to help the cause by going onto a website for preventing smoking.
2. This photo can be seen both as an example of logos and pathos. It utilizes logos by stating a concrete number of the amount of smoking deaths each year which persuades the audience to use reason in their thoughts on smoking. Also, it uses pathos by providing a photo of a skeleton smoking with the smoke forming a gun pointing towards the skeleton. This can give the audience an emotional feeling in order to warn them away from smoking.
Image: https://static01.nyt.com/images/2012/02/02/business/Adco/Adco-jumbo.jpg
This advertisement from the American Association of Orthodontist specifically targets adults who want a nice smile but may think they are to old for braces. The young women on the ad states she was thirty when she started the treatment showing that it is never too late to improve your appearance. The big bold letters also give attention to owning what you do for your self. The ad is using ethos to appeal to their audience by giving them more confidence to get braces which is usually seen as something teens get.
I meant to write ethos not pathos.
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/05/batmans-traumatic-origins/361638/
1) This is an image of one of the most popular superheroes in the world Bruce Wayne aka Batman. The target audience for this picture is obviously comic book readers, Batman fans or even people going through tough times. People who see this picture and read the texts can be inspired that even though they may be going through tough times like Batman and many people have in the past as long as you get back up you can prosper.
2) This picture would fit into pathos perfectly because it shows the emotional tragedy of a child losing both of his parents in front of him. The picture creates an emotion of sadness as you see a young boy looking down at his now deceased parents. The illustrator’s purpose for this picture besides the role of a strong back story for Batman can be to teach people the value of parents through grief. Such as even though Batman possessed near limitless money he could never buy his parents back to life therefore, displaying to you the value of parents and stirring sadness in the thought of losing them.
https://www.wired.com/2011/01/verizon-or-att-iphone/
1. This piece of media is referring to the concept of mobile coverage and devices, which are things that we use every day of our busy lives. Mobile coverage obviously plays a very crucial part in our modernized lives because without it, rapid communication of any sorts would not be possible, and the concept of communication is what keeps our present-day lives alive and extremely instantaneous.
2. I am going to primarily discuss the photo that is presented in the article as opposed to the article itself because it is more of a visual representation of what the company in advertising is trying to express. The photo depicting the map of the United States, and contrasting AT&T and Verizon coverage that is used nation-wide, is clearly using the rhetorical convention of logos. Logos by definition puts logic into play by using evidence and facts. It is clear that this photo is presenting data of the two companies and is used in a more statistical sense of expression, as opposed to an emotional or ethical one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iErz6lThokg
This is an advertisement from PETA on the topic of buying a dog vs. adopting one from the shelter and it uses very strong pathos to draw in the viewer by replacing the usual image of a dog with that of a bodybag. The person who directed this commercial is specifically targeting a demographic of people who would already care for animals but may not necessarily be informed on the impacts of buying a pet vs adopting one.
1) https://images.app.goo.gl/3AU5KhwegTDg5BWB7 This media is appealing to children and adults in my perspective. Especially teenagers who understand the effects of bullying.
2)This image appeals to pathos because we see how a father is willing to be left with nothing in order to provide for his son. That’s part of the image appeals to parents because they have children and know what it means to provide for them. How they only have the best interest of their kids in mind. While the men in the background appeal to kids because we see how they’re making fun of the father and son. Kids seen behavior similar to the one presented in this image in school. So we the facial expression of the father and son show the impact bullying has not only kids but adults as well.
https://infograph.venngage.com/p/142472/effects-of-underage-drinking
This talks about the effects of underage drinking and what it does to your health.There is a picture that has arrows that point to the exact parts of the brain that it affects and how it does this. People who see this are less likely to drink at a young age because they see how damaging it is to their health. Logos is used by showing the facts and reasoning behind why underage drinking is detrimental to your health. It includes a chart with data on the amount of deaths caused by drinking. This also can bring up an emotion (pathos) to someone reading this because they realize the seriousness of the affects of drinking and the scary outcomes that may happen.
https://d3nuqriibqh3vw.cloudfront.net/images/Hi_G2_J9389_E1971_A_EG2.jpg
1. This advertisement by Gatorade appeals to those who want to play basketball, or any sport for that matter, at a higher level than they currently are. It has the phrase, “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee,” which is taken from Muhammad Ali, a boxer known for his quick reflexes and fierce striking ability, which is a genius way to promote the beverage as it now advertises basketball players as well as boxers.
2. This image is using the rhetorical convention known as ethos, as it is applies directly to its definition, in which culture is being appealed to, and this case that culture is basketball and sports in general. Sports, as we all know have become a culture for millions of people, and the picture is a prime example of this culture in two different communities, one being basketball and the other being boxing. Also, there are two popular and known athletes that are being named/shown in the image, Dwayne Wade being the basketball player shown in the image, and Muhammad Ali being the one who they took the quote from, which also applies to the definition of ethos as it refers peoples character by showing someone of “credibility or popular recognition.”
https://cdn.designbump.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/anti-smoking-tobacco-advertisements-ads-print-design-026.jpg
1. This advertisement appeals to the concept of cigarette (tobacco products) smokers in general, but more specifically appeals to American or teen smokers.
2. The familiarity viewers have with toe tags on a corpse associates smoking with death. This media uses logos and pathos to deeply influence their targeted audience. In the advertisement the toe tag states “smoking kills” and a statistical fact,”about 440,000 Americans die each year from diseases related to smoking” to blatantly prove how smoking is effecting the American population and the fate of whoever continues to smoke. Pathos is reflected by the fright or shock viewers may feel and there is miniature note to ethos in the bottom right corner of the advertisement that says the source “Truth.com”. Truth is Americas largest nonprofit organization that focuses on ending tobacco usage. Making this advertisement credible and gives viewers a sense of assurance in the facts stated.
\ and 2) name at least one rhetorical convention that this piece of media is using, and explain why.
https://blog.printsome.com/coca-cola-marketing/
1. This advertisement is appealing to the concept that a food or beverage can make one happy. Many people often associate an increase in happiness with eating or drinking something, so in todays world this ad may be true in a sense.
2. This advertisement is using pathos to attract consumers. The ad says “Open a coke, open happiness” which means that it is trying to associate being happy with drinking a coke. For a person who may really need that emotional boost, they may believe that by buying and drinking a coke, they will feel happier. Including the words happiness is an automatic appeal to emotion.
2.
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/A15vd9Rg8rL._SY679_.jpg
This image is making the reader feel guilty an responsible to stop forest fires. This is because of smokey the bear’s judging eyes and the tezt of the image that calls the reader out. Specificity this image uses pathos to make the reader believe that it ia their moral responsibility to prevent forest fires.