This week in class we did a lot of work on the rhetoric appeals; logos, ethos, and pathos. These are all different ways to appeal to your audience and readers. These rhetoric appeals are a crucial part of writing, they help make your point and convince your readers that what you’re saying is viable and worth taking into consideration. Not only is this important in writing, though, it is also a big part in advertisement.
Many advertisements and commercials use celebrities or sports stars, like all of the “Got Milk?” ads you may find in many different magazines. This is the simplest use of ethos in advertising. It makes it easier for the audience to ‘place authority in the figure represented’ when someone famous is used rather than a random person that works for the company.
Logos in advertising is most commonly the use of data to show that a it makes sense for their audience to buy their products. A good example of logos is Gatorade advertising (many also using sports heroes for the ethos approach as well). Many Gatorade commercials well give percentages and numbers of essentials your body loses through sweat. Stating these numbers says to the audience that they should be replenishing with Gatorade.
Finally, and in some eyes most importantly, pathos. Pathos is the attempt to cover a wide range of emotions and sympathize with an audience. APSCA commercials that you see everywhere and make everyone want to cry are a very good example of the pathos approach. Seeing the horrible pictures of all the abused animals will make anyone want to donate money to them.
The best advertisements are ones that can find a way to tie all three approaches in together. They will be the most convincing commercials and the most able to get their point across.
http://avenueright.com/blog/bid/63902/A-Three-Minute-Guide-to-Ethos-Pathos-and-Logos-in-Advertising
tjc2012 