What captures your attention when you look at an advertisement, see a commercial or even look at a poster? Could it be the colors, a phrase that drags you in or is it the people that are pictured? The three persuasive methods used in creating these advertisements can be classified as pathos, ethos and logos. Pathos makes an appeal of emotion, ethos of character or credibility and logos of logic or reason.
Ethos is a credibility approach. Ethical appeals establish the credibility and goodwill of the author or the source used. With this appeal it is based on the writer’s own dependability. Ethos is trying to convince you that a certain company is more reliable, trustworthy, and credible. Therefore since the company is so great you should obviously
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Sometimes it can be a positive emotion and other it will be an emotion such as sadness. Pathos can include emotions such as fear, guilt or happiness. Images such as a starving child trying to persuade you to give money for food and water.
There are plenty of advertisements out there that are trying to engage in the approach. The advertisement of the small child holding a dirty bottle of water stating that we take our fresh water for granted is a perfect example. In the image it shows the boy carefully concentrating on the bottle of dirty water making that the first thing the viewer sees when looking at the advertisement. However, when the viewer looks at it the image without reading the words they know there is a sad story behind it provoking that sad emotion.
Deep in the ad it tells a story of an African American boy who doesn’t have clean water. The ad says fresh water found here and states that we take it for granted. To that little boy that muddy water was as fresh as it gets. The quote that is on the image helps us to imagine and get that saddened since when looking at the image. As a result the viewer wants to help those African American children that don’t have fresh water to