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Media Literacy Part 6: Rhetoric in Ads 776 Views


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Transcript

00:01

We speak student!

00:05

Media Literacy

00:07

Rhetoric in Ads

00:09

a la Shmoop

00:12

So the topic is rhetoric in ads.

00:14

Now, rhetoric.

00:15

[ whoop ]

00:16

What is rhetoric?

00:18

Yeah, I hate the word "rhetoric."

00:20

It gets thrown around so much, it's kind of out of control. [guy pitches rhetoric down a baseball field]

00:24

But what rhetoric is

00:25

is the art of persuading people

00:29

with words. That's it.

00:31

And that's why we hear the word "rhetoric"

00:33

used a lot with politicians.

00:34

Because all politicians are trying to do

00:36

is persuade people with their words. [President Obama on a podium]

00:39

So, Deb,

00:40

define for us what are the key elements that comprise rhetoric?

00:45

We have logos, pathos, and ethos. [speak no evil, hear no evil, see no evil monkeys]

00:49

And these are the three types of rhetoric

00:51

that are used, especially in advertising, to persuade the audience. [monkeys running around a shampoo add]

00:56

So first we have logos.

00:58

Logos is appealing to the logical side of the audience.

01:05

Logos, logic, makes sense. [Spok approves]

01:09

Let's use an example.

01:11

The Gatorade example.

01:13

You have a Gatorade commercial [guy on football field with Gatorade]

01:15

and it's gonna show

01:17

someone who drinks Gatorade and then it's gonna be like,

01:20

"Hey, this person drank Gatorade

01:23

and then they won 15 football games in a row."

01:26

And you're thinking, "Oh, okay. [guy on couch watching commercial approves]

01:28

They're doing one thing, correlation, they're doing this other thing.

01:32

That logically makes sense."

01:33

It's basically making any sort of argument

01:36

that we're using logic and reason

01:38

to say, "Yeah, okay, that's a solid argument."

01:40

Then we have pathos.

01:42

And this is when you appeal to someone's emotions.

01:46

This would be if

01:48

you had a celebrity with a Gatorade

01:53

but then they gave the Gatorade

01:56

to a really sad-looking child.

01:59

And then the sad-looking child drank it and all of a sudden, they were happy.

02:02

And we would go, "Oh, my God.

02:04

That sad kid's happy now. Oh, that's so sweet."

02:07

And we would

02:09

say, "Hey. Gatorade's cool."

02:10

We know that's not the case.

02:12

We are very aware of this logically.

02:14

But emotionally, we feel that.

02:16

So, ethos is about presenting the information

02:20

via a trustworthy source.

02:22

And celebrities are often considered trustworthy sources

02:26

just because they're familiar to us and we know them.

02:28

So if we're going back to the Gatorade example,

02:30

we would have then

02:33

an athlete drinking Gatorade. Because we're like,

02:36

"Oh, this guy knows. He needs to keep hydrated." [baskeball athlete drinks Gatorade]

02:38

And so that's a trustworthy source for us.

02:41

You might have

02:43

Bill Gates come on the screen

02:45

and talk to you about computers. Trustworthy source.

02:47

This guy knows how to use a computer. [Bill Gates smashes computer with an ax]

02:49

So you basically have someone presenting

02:51

information to you

02:53

that you trust that person's knowledge and background

02:58

to give you the right stuff. And so you say,

03:00

"If he thinks so, then I think my gut feels good about that."

03:04

Got it. Okay.

03:06

[ whoop ]

03:08

What is rhetoric?

03:10

What are the keys elements that comprise rhetoric?

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