Friday The 13th Ethos Pathos Logos

Television advertisements have been a part of pop culture for years, these quick minute long clips gain the popularity of its viewers through humor, shock, or simply good salesmanship. The ShamWow infomercial has become one the most well known television ads in America. Its popularity came from its snappy dialogue, believable offer, and enthusiastic spokesman. But what made this infomercial so successful? Today I will be analyzing how the ineffective use of the appeals of ethos and kairos, and the highly effective appeal of logos and pathos effect the audience in the ShamWow commercial.

While those clips are being shown, the song ‘In the Arms of an Angel’ by Sarah McLachlan is being played in the background. Slides with different statistics are being shown as well. The song “In the Arms of an Angel” is the major aspect of the commercial that really sets the tone. The tone of the song is depressing and gloomy but grabs the attention of the audience at the same time. The main point of the commercial is to convince the audience to “be an angel”, by saving the abused animals dying in the shelters. The song used is a perfect tool to convince the audience to be an angel and help the animals. Even though the music is a large part of setting the tone, the clips and pictures are equally as moving. Showing pictures of abused and suffering animals is a great way to get the audience’s attention and cause them to become sympathetic to the animals. Very few people in the world are unfazed when they see a video or picture of a helpless and suffering dog or cat. I looked at a lot of the related videos on YouTube and many of them are reaction videos. The videos show the audience’s reaction to the commercial. In more than 99 percent of the videos that I saw the viewer is in tears at the end. If a commercial that brings the audience to tears is not a perfect example of pathos then I don’t know what is.

Ethos, the appeal to credibility. There are many examples of ethos in this ad; one of them would be the use of doctors in the advertisement. During the commercial, the audience sees the doctors conducting research,

Ethos can allow the viewers to see the credibility or reliability of the commercial. In this commercial, the use of the golden retriever dog works as a way to build credibility. The dog works as a way to build credibility because it symbolizes a man’s best friend. Although there is no spoken language in this commercial, the dog is used as the spokesperson to make the audience feel inclined to trust and believe what is being presented to them. Most people know that dogs are quite loyal and protect their owners, so having the dog in this commercial inclines people to believe that what is being show to them is possible. Having the dog as the main character in this commercial establishes common ground with the audience. Everyone that watches this commercial will have different perspectives, but Budweiser uses this dog to find a common point that attracts the

In addition to all the examples of pathos, they express a lot of ethos in the ad. This is mostly shown through Sarah McLachlan. Not only does McLachlan speech throughout the video in a soothing tone but she is also the one singing “Angels” in the background of the video. They don’t directly say it, but you can tell from the context that Sarah McLachlan is a huge advocate for the BC SPCA company. This is most likely because she is seem sitting on the couch petting a rescued dog and you can hear the sadness and pain in her voice. Sarah McLachlan is a famous person and when people see the commercial and recognize her they will want to help and donate just like she is. Sarah McLachlan is probably a role model to many and a lot of people want to follow in the footsteps of their role model. The people who see this commercial they will trust it because of Sarah McLachlan. The positive to this is that more people will want to donate to BC SPCA.

Dealing with death and the emotions that come along with it is common to humans. This is especially true when it involves a parent or grandparent. In the commercial, the woman is having to deal with her ill father who is bedridden. This is an event most will have to go through once in their lives and letting go can be difficult. However, there is one thing that can help soothe the process of death and that is the existence of deep love for the person. Despite the commercial presenting this sensitive topic, the advertisement effectively reminds the audience the importance of everlasting love because of the use of pathos and ethos.

Pathos is an emotional appeal in which the advertisers hope that the consumers will allow their claim. Say for instance most people will notice a puppy behind what looks like to be a rusty cage. Seeing a cage like that, makes some wonder how bad the conditions are that the puppy is living in. then there is the puppy who

The audience feels emotional triggers when viewing the commercial due to the continuous use of humor, compassion, and amusement. The initial way they pull at your emotions is through tenderness and innocence. The commercial uses a curious little girl with an adorable voice and her concern for her father's well-being, causing a heart-warming sensation within the audience. Also, the commercial consist of a humorous story of the oblivious little girl pouring the cereal on her dad’s chest while he was sleeping because she was told Cheerios are good for the heart. In turn, audience feels light-hearted, relaxed, and amused because of the cute little girl’s compassion for her father. Furthermore, the commercial uses a bright yellow for the color of the cereal box intended to generate happiness, joy, warmth, and affection. Overall, the emotional appeal within the commercial adds the most allure.

Pathos is brilliant in the fact that everybody feels emotion and would be affected by some of these commercials. For example, Lyndon B. Johnson has a commercial which consists of a sweet little girl looking around, leading to the explosion of a bomb. What happens right after is that he says “vote for me”, which creates the underlying tone that this would happen to kids if they don’t vote for him. In the Kennedy jingle, he doesn’t use pathos for an argument as much as he uses it for rhyming. Rhyming is a catch to most and it is easy to get stuck in your thoughts.

Doctor Martin Luther King Junior was an expert in persuading his audience. He was a massive advocate for the civil rights movement, and when he saw the injustice being served to the African American community during the Vietnam war, he had to take a stand. In his passage, "Beyond Vietnam- A time to break silence", he uses the rhetorical devices of logos, pathos and ethos to to strengthen his argument for why American involvement in the Vietnam war was unjust. The technique of logos, using logic to persuade an audience, is seen many times throughout this passage.

Pathos is the emotional appeal to an audience, and most can agree that October holds an emotional rollercoaster of a holiday. We see horror movies not only terrorize the character’s feelings but also the audiences’. (A brief PSA) Pathos includes but is not limited to, argument ad verecundiam, argument ad populum, emotional Imagery, hypothetical Illustrations, and overall emotional appeals.

The very first word we read are “for a fact.” This is a clear illustration of logos. The writers are attempting to use logic and reason to substantiate a feeling of security. However, there is no data or clear facts present. They state “We’re proud to list [the ingredients] for your inspection…” yet

One article about gun control uses pathos when it states "A month after the slaughter of 20 children and seven adults in Newtown, Conn., Vice President Joseph Biden Jr.’s commission is about to present a series of recommendations for new laws, and it is vital that his panel gets it right and that Congress immediately takes action in its report…”(Times). By stating this the author is trying to coerce the audience into feeling guilty about the deaths of the young children and consequently instill a sense of urgency to initiate a change by making it a point to include the number and ages of the people that were killed. The famous ASPCA commercials] series also uses pathos by showing depressing images of injured animals while persuasive text moves across the screen. One example is, “They suffer alone and terrified, waiting for someone to help…” This statement is clearly trying to convince the observer that they should be the one to help, that it is them that the animals are waiting for. Afterwards, a woman comes on the screen and speaks to you about how to donate and how much your donation will

The ad uses pathos to persuade the audience emotionally to buy chocolate milk or milk in general. The illustration uses a picture of a young boy with the milk on the top of his lip imitating a mustache. By using the child the illustrator wants the audience who have young children at home to buy milk for them. I feel as if they used a young child in the ad because children can convince parents easily to buy something. For example, boy and girl scouts often sell pastries door to door for a profit or to raise money to go somewhere. Mainly the ones that are going door to door for sales are the young children themselves. They do this because a child asking you to buy something is more superior and convincing then an adult would be. Another reason would be the illustrator adds statements on the side saying that if you want your child to be healthy give them calcium and vitamins which are found in the milk they are selling.

I learned about ethos from the reading materials and advertisement. Which I learned that advertisers know we are searching for an honest product to spend our money on. So they use doctors, celebrities, or anyone who the public will listen to and buy their product because they are credible. I have seen those type of advertisement, especially with skincare. But I never knew that it had a special name for it.