Ethos, Pathos, Logos: In Advertisement, Study notes of Logic

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Critical Thinking

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Ethos, Pathos, Logos: In Advertisement

• ShreyaVerma Roll No. - 15044526024 PHI/15/ Ethos, Pathos, and Logos are modes of persuasion. Most TV commercials, sales copy, and speeches use these three factors to invoke an action.The idea of these three advertising techniques was first created by a Greek philosopher and writer named Aristotle, somewhere around 2000 years ago. So yeah, they have been around for a while, and their persuasiveness has never slowed down during that period Aristotle grouped them into three categories — ethos, pathos, and logos. The single name for them all is the Rhetorical Triangle. Professional copywriters still use them to sell their products, ideas, or to simply compel people to act on something through their writing. Aristotle would be proud! With that in mind, you know that their effectiveness is rooted in a long history of advertising and marketing success. Ethos, Pathos, and Logos are three concepts that have been used for centuries to persuade an audience. These rhetorical devices are often referred to as the ‘three pillars of persuasion.’ The first is Ethos, which means credibility or trustworthiness. You may also see it called ‘ethical appeal.’ This is when a writer speaks from personal experience to give an opinion on the subject matter. Next is Pathos, which leverages an emotional response such as pity, anger, or fear. Lastly, there’s Logos. This refers to the reasonableness or logic of the argument being made, in modern times this is best summed up as leveraging data and statistics in order to sell something. Aristotle developed some types of persuasive techniques in advertising to appeal to people and build trust. These types are the three persuasive techniques: pathos, logos and ethos in advertising: Ethos: Endorsing a product with likable celebrities or respected experts. Pathos: The use of emotional experiences to connect with and persuade people. Logos: The use of facts or data to persuade others.

Ethos, pathos, and logos are different ways an author can use persuasion in a text. Ethos is an attempt to catch someone’s attention by using ethics or a moral appeal. Pathos is an emotional appeal to someone’s feelings, like fear or love. Logos is a logical appeal that tries to persuade the reader with facts and statistics. With these basic definitions, students analyzed commercials and advertisements to investigate how each ad attempts to persuade the audience. Students discovered that the images, words, and context help convey the rhetorical message of the advertisements. Ethos: The purpose of ethos in advertising is to persuade the audience that the advertiser is trustworthy and ethical. Isn’t it simpler to make a decision when someone you respect or look up to approves it? Moreover, marketers often use ethos rhetoric to connect a brand to fundamental human rights. When a brand takes a position for a cause that is important to them, it builds trust with its audience. The imagery of ordinary, regular people is frequently used in ethos discourse. This method is known as the Plain Folks persuasive advertising tactic, in which a speaker or company appears as an Average Joe to make them feel normal and reasonable. They look concerned and cut from the same material as you by doing so. If a renowned celebrity like Kevin Hart drinks Mountain Dew on TV, a person viewing the advertisement is more inclined to buy a six-pack.

The celebrity or well-known endorser offers credibility and dependability with ethos appeals. This is conveyed both as a representative of the brand and as the brand itself. How? What does ethos imply to the audience? When a celebrity appears in a commercial or campaign promoting a product or service, viewers associate the celebrity’s influence with the brand’s status. Ethos often involves statistics from reliable experts, such as nine out of ten dentists agree that Crest is the better than any other brand or Americas dieters choose Lean Cuisine. Often, a celebrity endorses a product to lend it more credibility: Catherine Zeta-Jones makes us want to switch to T- Mobile. Pathos: Advertisements with pathos touch the audience’s heartstrings and make them feel stuff. Is there a quick technique to elicit a viewer’s emotions? An adorable animal. A sad family. A love tale. Overcoming adversity. A beautiful song with beautiful images. However, it can be negative, as in a person having back pain and feeling the need to take painkillers. It can also elicit remorse, as in seeing an ad that urges the viewer to adopt a puppy before they put it down. This type of technique will evoke pity, energy, or perhaps make a spectator cry. Therefore, it creates an emotional and compassionate pitch. Pathos: an appeal to emotion. An advertisement using pathos will attempt to evoke an emotional response in the consumer. Sometimes, it is a positive emotion such as happiness: an image of people enjoying themselves while drinking Pepsi. Other times, advertisers will use negative emotions such as pain: a person having back problems after buying the “wrong” mattress. Pathos

can also include emotions such as fear and guilt: images of a starving child persuade you to send money Ads with pathos include:

● Adorable polar bears drinking Coke

● Cuddly kittens are looking for a home

● A young boy’s mother dies as a result of her smoking

Are you worried that using a pathos marketing strategy would come off as too sentimental or cheesy? That’s a risk, but it’s a risk worth taking. Logos: Logos is a persuasive technique in advertising that uses rationality to persuade the public. Some examples in advertising include the reference of numbers, facts, data, tables, and graphs. Furthermore, it’s often known as “the logical appeal.” Advertisement logos examples:

● An advertisement for a phone that showcases the latest features and specifications

● A fruit juice advertisment that emphasizes vitamin and calorie content

● A phone company displays a map to demonstrate that it has superior coverage versus the

competitors The goal of logos rhetoric is to appeal to the intellect rather than the heart. However, not everyone is a rational person. The power of logos has its limits. But when it works, there’s nothing more remarkable. Accurate facts and logic do not lie. Logos: an appeal to logic or reason. An advertisement using logos will give you the evidence and statistics you need to fully understand what the product does. The logos of an advertisement will be the "straight facts" about the product: One glass of Florida orange juice contains 75% of your daily Vitamin C needs. Ethos: an appeal to credibility or character. An advertisement using ethos will try to convince you that the company is more reliable, honest, and credible; therefore, you should buy its product. References: Bean, J.C. (2001). Engaging Ideas: The Professor's Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Brookfield, Stephen. (2011). Teaching for Critical Thinking: Tools and Techniques to Help Students Question Their Assumptions. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.