Advertising: The Five Canons Of Visual Rhetoric

Visual rhetoric plays a significant role in the modern-day world. Everyone and everything is in some way, shape, or form trying to convince everyone else to think how they think, or believe what they believe. This is achieved through numerous methods, such as: commercials, advertisements, television shows, and even political cartoons. While everyday television is a huge arena for visual rhetoric, the “Mecca” of advertisement would arguably be the commercials during the Super Bowl. If one were to watch the Super Bowl, particularly in 2015, they would likely remember the Budweiser campaign centered around a Labrador retriever puppy. This pathos-filled commercial contains all of the necessary aspects of visual

Logos, ethos, and pathos are essential components used in advertising. By learning to recognize logos, ethos, and pathos in advertising, we are able to understand the message and what is being portrayed. (Albert et al, 2014), suggested that Aristotle postulated that a speaker’s ability to effectively convince an audience is constructed on how well the speaker appeals to that audience in three different areas: logos, ethos, and pathos. These appeals together form what Aristotle calls a rhetorical triangle.

The multimodal text our group chose was a Pop Tart box. The box color is a deep blue that catches anyone's attention. The combinations of pictures and text make it a great example of rhetoric. Their main audience is people who are grocery shopping. The Pop Tart company is trying to entice people to buy their product. They clearly used several examples of ethos, pathos, and logos.

Visual rhetoric is the persuasion through images that appeal to the audience's pathos, logos, and ethos. The magnitude of seriousness about a problem could be depicted through images, such as a polar bear suffering due to global warming affecting their environment. Through these type of images, the reader emotion is stirred and they will understand that action need to be taken to save these polar bears. On the other hand, often times the argument (logos) that is shown may not be as persuasive to some people who can't be persuaded through their emotions (pathos). Therefore rendering the argument and image ineffective, in which case the artist will have to try a different perspective that strike the viewer's value so that they may understand

We as humans learn to communicate with each other through many various forms of text: books, newspapers, advertisements, comics, public service announcements, social media, text messages, and the list goes on. Not only do the spaces that are created today allow our voices to be heard, but also these writing spaces provide different styles of rhetoric to be produced. The concept of rhetoric stems from the appeals of ethos, pathos, logos, and kairos, each with unique writing aspect that help convey an idea. Ethos, for example, focuses on author credibility. Pathos, on the other hand, deals with emotions and how the text/speech is able to affect the reader. Next, logos is the logistical standpoint or argument. Finally, Kairos is the idea that there is an appropriate time to do and say an idea. These four appeals are used in different ways depending on certain writing styles.

I know that, sometimes, instead of verbally telling my friend I hope she feels better (due to whatever reason) I text her a photo of a cat in a sweater. This image directly influences her mood in a way that my words may not have. I’m fascinated with the idea of the “non-linear, inconsistent, and unpredictable” ways images are distributed “within and across multiple networks.” The only control a human has over an image is its creation (if it is a graphic) and the very first place it is posted. This does not account for how individual humans will encounter the image, just its production and composition. Furthermore, the person creating the image will lose control over who views the image (the intended and unintended audiences). This is what leads to the transformation and possible satirization or an inversion of intent (protest versus call-to-action). This form of distribution and interpretation reminds me of how literature is void of authorial intent once it enters the public domain, depending on who encounters the text. Gries states this phenomena well when she writes that rhetoric “generates a multiplicity of consequences.” I think for this reason, it is incredibly hard to pinpoint the basic implications and methodology of visual rhetoric, as supported by the fact that Gries book, while engaging and interesting, is over 600 pages

Until now, people all over the world use of rhetoric in many situations. We use of rhetoric to write an essay, a letter to friend, or persuade a member in family. If people know how to use rhetoric correctly in every situation, it could bring a lot of power to the receivers. Based on Dr. William, the rhetoric refers to “the study of the art of persuasion”, and it has three elements “rhetorical appeals”: Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. According to our assignment, there are some analysis about how to use rhetoric demonstrate in each video.

Everywhere a person looks they can seed advertisements (ads) all around them. Companies will use ads and other techniques to promote their new product. They convince the buyer how the new product is somehow better than the older version. Many companies use television ads or conferences to introduce a new product to the market. Others might pay people to promote it, or place billboard ads buy the highway. It is amazing how companies find new forms to convince the targeted buyer to purchase their new product.

The Art of Rhetoric is when a speaker or author tries to persuade a specific audience to their point of view. The Art of Rhetoric can be found in many places: advertisements, documentaries, commercials, politicians on the campaign trail, and even teenagers trying to get out of trouble. The Art of Rhetoric consists of Ethos, Logos, and Pathos.

Today’s quick-moving world of technology has media texts such as advertisements to make sure that people understand with just a glance. Having adverts on magazines, social media and billboards allow them to use tools such as semiology, genre and narrative because it makes their messages clear instantly. These signs allow us to carry meaning through advertisements, connotations and the signification process. These tools let brands, mainly celebrities, and the option to produce and create a myth of the product such as “Be daring. Be an inspiration” to sell it to the world. We are in a time where advertisers use ‘simplicity’ in their adverts; there are no more paragraphs. It is mainly down to the person and the few words shown in that advert.

Rhetoric was first developed as a formal area of study and practice in the mid-300’s BC by Aristotle. It is the study of effective speaking and writing, and has often been called the art of persuasion. Speaking and writing were the predominant means of communication at the time of rhetoric’s development, but in recent years its principles have been applied to the persuasive value of the image, particularly in visual communication. As communication designers we should be aware of various forms and uses of rhetoric.

Aunt Jemima has often been considered an archetype of advertising for well over a century. As times have changed their ads have too and have always stayed persuasive, keeping them in business since 1889. In this 1953 add for Aunt Jemima pancakes and waffles, visual rhetoric, such as target audience, context, and focus, are noticeably prevalent in order to persuade available markets to buy their product.

In the use of images continuum in a media message, the developers go through a process of how the image would be rendered. Image continuum can be explained how an image can go through different phases overtime. For example, an image can be photographed as realistic, to becoming an abstract, then as an iconic figure. One of the decisions by publishers is to figure out whether the image will be photographed or illustrated to represent the message provided. In the Corolla advertisement, it is a photographed image. Therefore, this could mean showing the realism of safety for their newest product. Using an illustrated image could be helpful, but not as helpful for getting a real point of view. An emphasis, however, is the dominant element of a piece.

Looking at the art of the past, we see many images depicting nude women. From Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus to Ingres’s Grande Odelisque, many artists like the idea of painting a woman in the nude in an interesting pose. Even modern images in contemporary magazines depict nude images. Yves Saint Laurent’s advertisement of their fragrance Opium depicts a nude woman covering her breast. Her pose is a symbol of the iconography, while beauty serves as the iconology. The understanding of the iconography and iconology of this image by contemporary society comes from the fact that the nude image was depicted in the great art of the past; however, the fact that society has become contemporary

While building brand identity through the development of a distinctive type of imagery, several major campaigns play down the product itself and develop strategies that were alien to advertising but familiar in art (Gibbons, 2005). Artist and Advertising business fundamentally have much in common and can contribute the more to society as they come to complement their talents. Each has within him the undying desire to create, to contribute something to the world, to leave his mark upon society.