The Power of Advertisements
Steven Juarez
English 1311
3/28/11
There is a great amount of power in advertisement, when done well. A good piece of advertisement can tug at someone’s heart, it can anger someone and cause them to act, it can mislead a person, and it can inform the public. Whether they use ethos, pathos, logos, or a combination of all three, advertisements must always consider their target audience. Some advertisements can go unnoticed by some people, but there are people who can be affected enough by advertisements to act. That is the type of advertisement featured in this report. Through the successful use of ethos, pathos, and logos, advertisement can have a profound impact on its audience.
The ethos of the advertisement is evident. The advertising company, Y&R, Dubai, has created advertisements in a variety of media types for other well-known companies.. The company has various branches all over the world. To further the credibility of the image, the name of the company as well as a phone number for a hotline, is placed at the bottom left hand side of the advertisement. James Day is the creator of the image and has also created images for known companies. There can be instances when the ethos can be destroyed by the incorrect use of pathos. However, James Day does a good job of maintaining the advertisement’s integrity.
The visual in the advertisement is heavy on pathos. The image of a woman with a bruised and blackened right eye invokes horror, fear, and sympathy. It uses pathos to bring home the gravity of the situation verbally abused woman are in. The image itself is a metaphor, which is explained in the text. The woman was not physically abused, but the wounds on her face are meant to show that words can be as powerful as a fist. It uses a simple grey background to bring focus to the woman in the center of the image. The side of her face with the bruises appears to be larger than the left side, focusing on her bruises and making them bigger and emphasized. There is also the word “whore” in parenthesis showing that someone is yelling at her. The advertisement uses a sound strategy for conveying its message. James Day demonstrated a superb ability to use pathos correctly and he did no less with logos.
The advertisement uses logos very well. The image, see Figure 1, is organized in a way such that the bruises and scars are the first things the eyes see. The text at the bottom left of the image supplements that and adds to it by revealing that the wounds are not a result of physical attacks, but a metaphor for verbal abuse that shows how people can be scarred just as harsh mentally. It uses perspective and color well. The color of the image is quite subtle, except for the wounds. The wounds are a dark red and attract the attention of the audience. The side of the face with the wounds also seems to be larger in scale, almost like a deformity is growing. Though the visual of the woman itself is very powerful, I believe that it could not get the idea across without the text. Without the text, the visual would be understood in an entirely different way. The text and the visual work together. The text might still be capable of getting the idea across, but without as much impact as with the visual. All the efforts of the advertisement would be for not, however, if it could not reach its target audience.
All of the rhetorical strategies used in the advertisement speak to a specific type of audience. The image of the verbally abused woman and the text at the bottom implies that the specific target audience is abused women. It could, however, have multiple audiences as there could be instances where young men are the target of verbal abuse. The Add could also be offering assistance to wives, girlfriends, daughters, sisters, or anyone that is experiencing abuse.
In conclusion, the advertisement does a great job of staying true to the rhetorical strategies. Its ethos is credible, it uses pathos very well, and it has a good grasp of logos. The advertisement has a noble message to convey and it does it in such a way that can cause one to pick up the phone and ask for help. The image depends heavily on pathos to attract attention and to incite a reaction, but it does so without overdoing the power of pathos. The creator of the image organized it very well and did not disappoint with logos. Though some advertisements use on or two of the rhetorical strategies, this one combined all three to produce an excellent result that could possibly help someone find a way out of their violent situation.
References
James Day (Photographer). (Year image was created). Retrieved
March 23, 2011, from: http://adsoftheworld.com/media/print/kafa_whore
March 23, 2011, from: http://adsoftheworld.com/media/print/kafa_whore
Y&R. (2011). Home. Y&R Dubai, United Arab Emirates Website. Retrieved from http://www.yr-dxb.com/
