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One ad that orators the components of Aristotle is a cigarette ad from Marlboro that has been up on many popular magazines such as the newest addition of ‘TIME”. The audience associated with this magazine would be older people who grew up with TIME magazine and mid-aged adults. This ad has many different characteristics that fulfill Aristotle ethos, pathos, and logos by manipulating consumers to buy their product with the ad’s color and background, the image, the text, the simplicity, and the overall concept and theme.
An article that backs up what Aristotle asserts about literature in terms of modern-day advertisement is called “Rhetoric of Advertisement” by Stuart Hirsch berg. This ad is trying to persuade the audience into buying a new type of cigarette by grasping the readers’ emotions and logical appeal. This ad mainly uses the consumers’ emotions to persuade them. In this cigarette ad, the creator of the ad uses color contrast and background choice to appeal to the emotion of the audience.
The background of this ad has a grass valley with a river flowing through it and a mountain range in the background. As Hierarchies stated in his work, “By putting attractive people in the outdoorsy setting they put the thought of [the anger of cigarettes] emphysema, shortness of breath, or lung disease very few away’ (141 With the ad having this type of environment, it gets the audience away from the potential danger of smoking cigarettes.
Also Hierarchies work explains why companies use outdoorsy settings when he says, “By showing Cigarette packs set against the background of grass glistening with morning dew or bubbling streams or waterfalls, they subtly guilds the audience’s response away from what is a dry, hot, congested, or burning toward what is an open, airy, moist, cool, and clean” (141). This is exactly what is drawn in this ad; with the stream and green grass it tricks the readers into emotionally believing that they are in a peaceful, calm, and nature environment.
The reason why a company would do that is to hide the negatives of the products they are selling; by using the audience to picture an outdoorsy scene it take away from how harmful smoking is. The color of the ad also has an impact on the reader; since the picture looks bright and fresh, that is what people feel when they kick at the ad. Companies do not just use the background to persuade people into buying their product, they also use he images presented in the picture.
As with the background of this ad, the images displayed in this piece of advertisement literature also has an emotional effect on the readers. In this ad, there is a family of three walking through the pasture laughing and playing as if they are the perfect family. According to Hierarchies, with this image it can portray, “ads for products that promise to guarantee their purchasers youth, health, social acceptance, self-steam, creativity, enlightenment, a happy family life, loving relationships, or any other try to scare consumers into purchasing the product to ease their fears” (141 ).
As in this ad, the creator uses the image of a happy family to manipulate the emotions of the buyer into thinking that if they buy this product they will have a happy fun family as shown in the advertisement. Also with the open fresh atmosphere, a consumer could take from it that the product will help them be more active and have better health. As Hierarchies would argue, “The kinds of associations’ audiences are encouraged to perceive reflect a broad range of positive emotions appeals that encourage the audience to find self-esteem through the purchase of their product” (142).
The company for this ad is very lever in making people feel a certain way when looking at this ad. The emotions attached to this ad are the feelings of nature, hope, fulfillment, joy, family pride, and many more positive emotions. Not only are the images in this ad effective in persuading consumers, but the words in this ad have the same appeal. The theme of pathos and logos is portrayed in this ad with the text writing being about why one should buy this cigarette.
This ad uses pathos because, as Hierarchies argues, “The emotional appeals in ads function exactly the way assumptions about values do in written arguments” (143). The text in this ad says that “Mother Earth Needs You,” this cigarette ad is selling a new type of cigarette where it is an CEO-friendly cigarette. The text in this ad says, Whitish Earth is the only one we’ve got. But at the rate we’re using its natural resources, it wont last forever. So take a refreshing drag off one of our new Marlboro Earth CEO-cigarettes, and help kill environmental destruction once and for all.
Isn’t the Earth worth it? ” The company is trying to guilt people into buying their product. It is trying to make consumers feel bad by saying that “you” as a consumer is responsible for the environment and a way to save it is o buy an CEO-cigarette. This writing has a huge impact on the buyer’s emotions. It tries to emotionally make people feel bad about the environment and it guilt’s people when it says, “Isn’t earth worth it? ‘ The company has nothing good to say about the product itself, so it buries it in the positive way they are trying to do to the environment.
They also use what Hierarchies describes as weasel words when the ad says “help”; this word does not mean anything because companies do not need to back up this type Of word with any written evidence that it actually helps the environment. With ext being a powerful aspect in persuading potential buyers into buying a product, the overall simplicity of the ad has a major role in winning the audience over. Even though this ad comes across as a simplistic ad, it has a very complex and powerful manipulation technique that quickly grasps the audience attentions.
In its entirety, this ad looks like a picture of a family walking on a grass pasture with words written on it. This simple view is a great technique company’s use. At a quick glance, it looks very basic and easy for the eye to see and read. But once it is picked apart, people can see how complex and retrieve it is. This ad looks simple because it is a grassy picture with people in it and words. But each part in this ad is designed for a purpose, and that purpose is to manipulate a potential buyer to buy their product. Put all emotional attachment aside, this piece of advertisement is a very creative and intelligent work.
It gets the buyers attention in one shot and guilt’s them into thinking this product is good for you and the earth. This is a very delicate and time-consuming work for the company to make and produce. Some may say that companies that use man populations are evil because they trick consumers hill others say they are geniuses to be able to persuade buyers into buying their product. With a product like cigarettes, the normal consumers are regular consumers and companies trying to make their product look better and nicer then their competitors.
While this ad looks simple, it is really a masterpiece in itself. The simplicity of the ad is only one aspect of manipulation; another one is the theme or concept of an ad. With this ad being a manipulative illustration, it also is an effective ad with its concept and theme presented in it. The concept of this ad is to persuade errs into buying Marlboro cigarette through the Aristotle philosophy of pathos. Pathos is presented all throughout this advertisement, from the color of the sky to the selection choice of the people. The color of the sky is a light blue with a bright light sun.
The creators did this to get the audience to feel fresh and hopeful. They want the audience to feel hopeful so that they would buy their product. The light sky also gives a sign of “god” present, saying that it is okay to buy their product. The light rays also a sign of the end of the tunnel, finish line to the end all. The people choice in this ad is very specific in he fact that it is a young, healthy looking family who are all wearing bright colors symbolizing purity and hope rather than what the product is about: dark and dangerous.
Also the heading in this ad is in bold white, giving the impression that this ad is pure and is for the environments good rather than the company. The theme presented here is save the planet, buy their CEO- cigarette. The company is trying to manipulate consumers by using their emotional appeal to the environment. However, smoking a cigarette has more of a negative impact on the environment than using their CEO-friendly cigarette for a positive impact. All in all, an advertisement’s sole job is to make consumers want a company’s product.
Whether it is a cigarette company like Marlboro or a company that sells cars, the main job at the end of the day is to increase revenue. These companies achieve their goal through advertisement techniques like Marlboro by the ad’s color and background with using outdoorsy scenes, the image of a happy family, the text of helping the environment, the simplicity, and the overall concept and theme of emotional appeal through the help of the environment. Most people would argue that Hess types of manipulative ads are evil and just straight up mean while others argue that they are masterpieces and genius techniques.