Pity Fallacies: American Society For The Prevention Of Jealousy

Rhetorical appeal is intended to persuade individuals to think a certain way, conduct themselves in a certain manner, or the purchase particular products. Unlike speech in which an individual relies on their persona and content of speech to get their point across to an audience or consumer, advertisements use images to enhance the impact and appeal of logos, ethos, and pathos.

St. Jude Children 's Research Hospital is asking for help from parents to support the hospital’s funding. This hospital was established in February 4, 1962 and their purpose “is to advance cures, and means of prevention, for pediatric catastrophic diseases through research and treatment” (StJude.org). The survival rate has arised and children are able to stay at no cost due to donation. They have raised survival of childhood of cancer from 20% to 80%. The St. Jude Children’s Research hospital advertisement is highly effective because it uses three different rhetorics. Firstly, it uses ethos to appeal to the credibility of the hospital by

In 2010 the ASPCA (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) came out with a commercial that would shock the advertisement industry. The effectiveness of this commercial is proven, simply by watching the reactions of the commercial’s viewers. For those who have never seen the video it has a very sad and morose tone to it. The commercial begins with showing pictures and videos of suffering animals with the song “Angel” playing in the background. While this is going on the narrator of the commercial (Sarah McLachlen) is softly talking about the suffering and abuse that these unfortunate animals go through. Through many different rhetorical techniques the viewers are many times brought to tears after watching this

The commercial by ASPCA has one message, and that is to protect and better the condition of life for national, farm, and wild animals. ASPCA is a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing cruelty to animals. They have a mission, that is to rescue, save and help animals all around North America because there are way too many cases of animal cruelty and neglect. Sarah McLachlan makes an argument about animals being abused and neglected, and how we can change that by a mere donation. This argument persuades the audience with the small videos and pictures in the background showing sad, hurt, and neglected animals that need a home with owners who will love and take care of them.

A fallacy is defined as a kind of error in reasoning. They can be persuasive and be created both unintentionally and intentionally in order to deceive others from the truth. Fallacies often indicate a false belief or cause of a false belief (dowden, 2006). An argument or situation commits a fallacy when the reasons offered do not support the conclusion. This defeats the purpose of the argument since its point is to give reason to support the conclusion. Fallacies affect the outcome of our everyday decision making process. There are three types of logical fallacies discussed in this paper along with the importance of utilizing critical thinking skills.

Throughout the commercial sick children and shown being given different tests and laying in hospital beds. By showing these images the audience feels a sense of fear, loss, pain, and grief, even though they do not personally know the children. By not donating the audience does feel responsible for these sick children potentially losing their lives. At the same time the commercial causes such negative feelings, it also provides positive ones such as hope and pride. By donating to St. Jude’s hospital a child’s life can be saved and that is because of you. This is effective for St. Jude’s because most people would rather feel positive feelings rather than negative, so they are more likely to call and donate to keep that positive feeling going. Also, ending the advertisement on a positive note by telling the audience “You can bring them that hope” the audience is drawn into pathos all over

Have you ever tried to persuade someone to see something in a specific way? If so, you may have utilized the three rhetorical appeals, logos, ethos, and pathos. Rhetorical appeal or rhetoric is something students learn about in an English or Writing class. Rhetoric is a subtle way to make writing appear cohesive and engaging. According to Lynn Troyka and Douglas Hesse, there are “three central principles of rhetoric- the persuasive appeals”(18). The use of rhetoric in advertising is used to help the advertisers to appear more professional to consumers, and compel viewers to comply with the goals of the advertisers. Two other tools advertisers use to entice viewers are the design and color of an advertisement. The "Charity Water: Imagine" ad uses advertising tools such as rhetoric, design, and color to achieve a desired response from consumers.

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.

An argument is an effective strategy used to persuade individuals or public that a general opinion or perception is either right or wrong. Although, as we try to create a reasonable argument, chances are we encounter logical fallacies. A fallacy is a faulty line in reasoning that hinder our ability to make an argument invalid, affecting our ability to argue effectively. Fallacies are more commonly used as a tool to influence opinion or actions of individuals or group of individuals to as to obtain a future goal while obscuring the truth of the matter. These are more commonly referred to as propagandas, which persuades the public to be “for” or “against” certain political ideas, religion, races and opinions as a whole. A propagandist wants invoke

The commercial appeals to the audience’s pathos more than anything. Animals, especially dogs, have a way of pulling with human heartstrings. “...they can be used to transfer desired meanings to the products with which they are associated” (Phillips 1). In other words, using animals in advertisements can link advertised products to the feelings that are associated

The emotion in this commercial is intended to make the audience feel sympathetic and compassionate towards the animals.

Envision the average American household having a lovely time watching advertisements on the television when suddenly a commercial about animal abuse plays and they hear “Angel” by Sarah McLachlan. It’s the famous commercial that tugged at everyone’s heartstrings back in 2007 (http://www.redbookmag.com/life/pets/news/a41805/sarah-mclachlan-aspca-commercial/), but the reason for its popularity can be described with the elements of an argument. Indeed, an argument is being made with those sad puppy eyes, and it is one that’s being made to appeal the crying audience. The animal cruelty video by the ASPCA featuring Sarah McLachlan is an example of a successful advertisement for these reasons: it’s use of emotion, logic, and credibility.

This is just one method the ASPCA announcement uses to make its audience sad. The pathos technique is also employed by the use of music in this advertisement. “Angel” by Sarah Mclachlan is a very powerful and emotional piece. The song has undoubtedly sad tone. The song’s message resonates perfectly with the advertisement’s message, and it suggests that the audience can be the animals’ angels or saviors.

When a person first thinks of murder, envy probably is not their second thought, but it should be their third. Statistically speaking, jealousy ranks number three in the most common motives for manslaughter. So although it may seem like a simple enough emotion, many feelings coincide. To most, it is a stressful and unwanted inner conflict that can cause or further aggravate thoughts of insecurity and inadequacy. Also, apparently, violence-inducing rage.

The logical fallacies of amphiboly, appeal to authority, appeal to emotion, and non sequitur are often found in advertising to persuade us to purchase certain products, whether we need them or not. In order to think critically, we need the proper skills. Whether reading advertisements, deciding which politician to vote for, or buying a new car, we need to know how to carefully examine the statement to determine the validity of the content or structure. When a person’s argument is flawed, it is usually from a fallacy. Fallacies are defects in an argument, which cause the argument to be invalid or weak. By understanding what fallacies are, we can avoid making them and detect when other people use them.