what you know you can't explain, but you feel it. you've felt it your entire life, that...

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

CharacterCredibility

Appeals to ETHOS

CharacterCredibilityExpertise

Experts! Doctor-Endorsed! Prescription Strength! The language of ETHOS

Appeals to LOGOS

Appeals to LOGOS

Reason

Appeals to LOGOS

ReasonGets the audience to think

Appeals to LOGOS

ReasonGets the audience to thinkEvidence! 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 securityNeed for reassurance of worthNeed for ego gratificationNeed for creation outletsNeed for love objectsNeed for a sense of powerNeed for rootsNeed 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?