Aristotle, born in 384 B.C., described that rhetoric is effective by three means. These means are what he referred to as ethos, logos, and pathos. These three components help persuade people using three different means. Often, we hear or see these persuasion techniques used in everyday life, whether it be through an article we read or a commercial we see.
“Ethos” can be defined as trying to persuade, using your reputation to your advantage. An example of this would be in this commercial for Macs.
In this commercial, we see Macintosh using their reputation of not getting virus’, as an advantage over a PC. They are using their reputation to sell their product. This is just one of the three possible ways to persuade people. We often see this technique being used when you hear the line, “The truck you can trust,” in a Ford commercial, or “The batteries doctors depend on,” in a Duracell commercial.
Aside from ethos, we also have what is called “logos,” which is persuasion based on good reasoning. As I learned from www.rpi.edu, this technique is often used in research documents, where one tries to prove a point, by offering legitimate reasoning or logic. Logos can also be seen in the Macintosh example I used. Mac is trying to persuade us that it’s logical to buy a Mac, because it won’t get virus’ like a PC will. They are trying to use logical persuasion.
The third type is called “Pathos,” which focuses on an emotional aspect to try and persuade. An example of when this would be used would be in a Pro-Life message. They would try to sway your opinion by adding in an emotional factor, by convincing you that having an abortion is morally wrong, and that a fetus is indeed a living creature.
Aristotle’s rhetoric has been being used for over 2000 years, and his concepts still currently apply to modern day persuasion.
Most of my information came from http://www.rpi.edu/dept/llc/webclass/web/project1/group4/
3 comments:
I think that when comparing Aristotle’s idea of rhetorical proof with the Apple advertisement, the company’s strongest selling point is their logical persuasion. Because the company already has a perceived intelligence and a positive reputation of loyalty to their customers, the ad speaks for itself in its simplicity. Based on Apple’s performance history and ability to take an honest approach when it comes to marketing, this advertisement just states the facts. With Aristotle’s concept of logical proof, the clip demonstrates a more valid persuasion with one key factor. Mac’s enthymeme, so to speak, is that their product does not contain viruses, however their competitor, the pc, does. Knowing that customers do not want viruses, we can therefore deduct that people want a Mac. It’s the perfect logical example, and personally I think a very important motive in persuading the audience to buy their product. The one and only reason I am using a Mac right now is based on the fact that I didn’t want to deal with firewalls and security devices to protect my computer from the millions of viruses embedded in the pc. Apple made my decision simple and easy, two key components that the company’s products are known for and are clearly represented in this ad.
i see the apple advertisement as a good example of using Aristotle's Rhetorical Proof. Like Becca said in the above comment the logical persuasion is the strongest selling point, but there are other ways that apple is attracting people to buy from them. Companies today use different types of advertisements to attracted there target audience. I believe that with these commercials apple is trying to get there target audience to by there product by using the "Ethos" part of Aristotle's Rhetorical Proof. In all of the apple commercials you see two men interacting with one another. one man represents PC played by John Hodgman the other represents MAC played by Justin Long who is a well liked young actor in Hollywood. i believe that apple uses Justin to show that they have shared values and beliefs with there audience. Justin's character seems to be a good honest person who cares about his customers. and then they use John Hodgman to show that there competition is faulty and unreliable. even though i am a PC guy and cant stand macs i can see how this advertisement can be very persuasive.
Very funny commercial! And I didn't know about Mac's protection against viruses and spyware until recently but after watching this advertisement, I can say Apple did a good job advertising because it's persuasive and selling. Many Americans are switching to Macs now because of this aspect of protection. The advertisement shows Apple's confidence and comfort against viruses which is a very important aspect of persuasion. If there's no confidence, how would it be possible for the audience to trust in the persuader.
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