Visual rhetoric aims to persuade through non-verbal means. Some common persuasive elements in visual texts include: 1. Imagery and symbolism - Images can represent ideas, values, or concepts in subtle yet powerful ways. 2. Emotive appeals - Visuals often aim to elicit emotions like humor, fear, outrage to engage the audience. 3. Simplicity and clarity - Visual messages need to communicate their point succinctly through a single glance to be effective. 3. Association - Images may reference other concepts, people, or events to leverage established meanings and associations.

1. Week 2
RHETORICAL APPEALS IN ADS
Russell Rodrigo, M.Ed.
Stamford International University

2. Review: For each of the following scenarios, write your own
persuasive sentences using the rhetorical appeals.
Ethos
1. Persuade your teacher to buy your old mobile phone.
2. Persuade your friends to go to Justin Bieber’s concert.
Pathos
1. You are attempting to convince a friend to buy the shoes you are currently
wearing.
2. You are trying to persuade your boyfriend/girlfriend to go camping with
your boy/girl friends without him/her.
Logos
1. You are trying to persuade an audience that they should exercise more
often.
2. Persuade your friends to study in Stamford International University.

3. Advertisements
We see advertisements all around us every day. Do we really know the
effects they have on us?
1. What makes for an effective advertisement?
2. What is the most memorable advertisement you’ve ever seen? Can you remember
what it was for? What made it so memorable?
3. What is the most effective in commercials? Logos, pathos or ethos? Is this the same for
print advertisements?

4. Why study advertisements?
Text, sounds, and images in these advertisements have been carefully crafted to persuade
the audience to purchase a product or service.
These techniques are similar to those used in persuasive writing.
Why are certain products persuasive?
If you know how you are persuaded by something, you will be able to make a less biased
decision and form your own opinion
Becoming more media literate allows you to create messages of your own and
communicate clearly, effectively and purposely.

5. Ethos in ads
•Ethos, the appeal to character
• Often linked with ‘logos
• Testimonials
• Celebrities

6. Ethos Example
Product: Vitwater Endure
Repertoire: boxing
champion and a politician
Why is Manny Pacquiao
credible?

7. Logos in ads
• Price
• Features
• Evidence
• Statistics
• Addressing the competition
• Buzz words: pure, clean, fast, better, natural etc.
• Note: logos ≠ logos

8. Logos Example:
•Product: Cheerios
•Logic: “Lower your
cholesterol 4% in
6 weeks!”
Logos in Ads

9. Logos in Ads

11. Logos in Ads

12. Logos in Ads

14. Pathos (Greek for “suffering” or
“experience”)
Pathos: appeals to the audience’s capacity for empathy;
wants you to care about the subject matter
Typical Emotional Appeals:
 Love
 Pity
 Patriotism
 Hope
 Jealousy
 Anger
 Fear
 Lust
 Happiness

15. Pathos in ads
•Wording
• Name, connotation,
metaphor, jokes

16. Pathos Example:
•Product: Dorothy
Gray Salon
•Emotional
Appeal: jealousy
/ fear

17. How does this ad employ
Pathos to elicit sympathy
from its audience:

18. Political Ad Video
An anti-Obama ad marketed toward women and focusing on
“Obamacare.”

19. Appeals to Pathos
The following list is debatable with some techniques crossing categories.
1. Metaphor--two images or statements that are completely different, but when
placed together create a new idea.
2. Comparison to a Competitor--a direct or indirect comparison to another product,
either through images or careful selection of words
3. Fascinating Faces--use of human faces that appeal to the emotions of the reader.
4. A New Character-- a created character (cartoon, animation, etc.) that adds
interest, story value or recognition to the product.
5. Personification--giving human characteristics to a product or representative of a
product.
6. A Problem--a stated or implied problem that people generally have.
7. A Benefit--a stated or implied benefit the product has.

20. 8. Mystery--something that confuses and intrigues the reader.
9. Eye Candy--a visual image so stunning that it attracts attention.
10. Dramatic Conflict--use conflict to generate interest in the product.
11. Play with Language--using casual, informal language that uses cliché, rhyme, or
playfulness; or using serious and formal language
12. Historical Connection--using a connection to a time, place or person in history.
13. Exaggeration--an idea taken to the extreme and made to be unrealistic.

21. What appeals are mostly used in the
following ads?

22. 1.
Pathos

23. Ethos

24. LOGOS
AND
PATHOS

25. 4. PATHOS

26. PATHOS

27. LOGOS AND PATHOS

28. LOGOS AND
PATHOS

29. For each of the following extracts from advertisements, identify how
ethos, pathos or logos is being used.

31. Class Activity
Procedure
1. Make 6 groups (equal number of students)
2. Assign groups their corresponding website (next slide)
3. Students watch the commercials and decide which appeal is strongest in the commercial
4. Students pick their favorite commercial and analyze it in their group
5. Watch (part of) their favorite commercial and the group presents their analyses
1. Discuss anything on the preceding slide (slide 15)
1. Message, purpose, audience
2. Pathos, ethos, logos
3. Anything else that makes it persuasive (music, images, colors, sounds etc.)
6. Discuss any questions that come up / Closing statement on persuasion in commercials

32. Go to the links given on the next slide.
1. Analyze the effectiveness and persuasiveness of the following
commercials.
2. Analyze the following:
1. Product
2. Target audience
3. Message
4. Rhetorical appeals (Ethos, Logos, Pathos)
3. Are the rhetorical appeals effectively used? Why or Why not? If your
answer is NO, what suggestions can you give?
4. Report your analysis to class next meeting.

33. Commercials
1. Mr. Clean | 2017 Super Bowl Ad | Cleaner of Your Dreams
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDzMxlw2Fgo&ab_channel=Mr.Clean
2. Christopher Walken & Justin Timberlake for Bai | official Big Game spot (2017)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-TXRa6qd7c&ab_channel=moviemaniacsDE
3. Old Spice | The Man Your Man Could Smell Like
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=16&v=owGykVbfgUE&ab_channel=OldSpice
4. Budweiser: Super Bowl XLVIII Puppy Love #BudEpicAds -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=9&v=dlNO2trC-mk&ab_channel=BudweiserBrasil
5. Volkswagen Beetle 2011 Super Bowl XLV television commercial -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=25&v=-NGN4J6F_vI&ab_channel=MOTOR1US
6. Kwentong Jollibee Valentine Series: Date -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDHZkLeh6vw&ab_channel=JollibeePhilippines
7. EDEKA Weihnachtsclip - #heimkommen - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6-
0kYhqoRo&t=8s&ab_channel=EDEKA

35. Advance Reading:
Strategic Language
1. Attacks
2. Inclusive and Exclusive Language
3. Rhetorical Questions
4. Cause and effect
5. Connotations
6. Analogy
7. Generalizations
8. Humor:
9. Jargon
10. Formal Language
11. Colloquial language
12. Repetition
13. Hyperbole
14. Parallelism
15. Alliteration and Assonance
16. Imagery and Figurative Language
17. Cliché
18. Bias
19. Adverb & Adjective
20. Emotive Language
21. Personification

36. What do you think are the persuasive elements
used in visual texts (cartoons & images)?