Rhetorical Analysis of Zenith Ad

Rhetorical Analysis Final

Kevin Tyssen

ENGL 112

Prof. Emily Fancy

March 17, 2013

\

When creating advertisements for their products, companies will often use a variety of techniques to convince their audience of the point that they are trying to make, which is usually that the product they are advertising is one that the audience should buy. The most common techniques are pathos, ethos and logos, which are appeals to emotion, authority and logic, respectively. This advertisement for a Zenith television/radio/record player combo, which first appeared in Look magazine on March 27, 1951, is no exception. This Zenith ad uses pathos, ethos and logos, in both obvious and subtle ways in its attempt to influence the audience to purchase this product.

The most obvious appeal in this advertisement is pathos. Like most ads, both past and present, it shows young, attractive and most importantly, happy people. While most people will of course not think a television set would make them younger or more attractive, the idea that it will make them happy can be a convincing one. The use of attractive people, or other images pleasing to the eye, will usually make the reader happy, and perhaps associate the advertised product with that happiness. Since the appeal to emotion often bypasses the logical and critical thinking it is a very effective measure in advertising, and is often used as a first impression, since the emotional response you get from an image will often color your judgment of the rest of the advertisement.

The ad also makes an effective appeal to ethos, which is the use of reputable or trustworthy sources provide testimony to the product. Since it is an entertainment product anyone who is happy would be a reputable source to tell you the product makes people happy, which builds on the pathos discussed previously. The way the people in the ad are dressed can also appeal to ethos, because of their fancy attire they appear to be wealthy, in fact the ad also...