Assignment 3 - Pathos

This Nike ad appeals to pathos. It’s overall simplistic design eliminates distractions that may disrupt the main point. The ad is displayed in black and white with the only color being the bright yellow text. The color for the text is taken from Lance Armstrong’s famous Livestrong campaign to fight against cancer. Because Lance Armstrong’s personal fight against cancer and his current Livestrong campaign are both widely known, the yellow color is a successful way to draw the viewer in by relating it to an occurrence/campaign already branded in the mind. The slogan “Just do it” gives viewers a sense of duty and ability – a new courage to conquer the insurmountable. By showing the scar on this cancer patient’s head, the viewer feels sympathy by viewing the reality of cancer. That, along with the fact that most viewers have an association with cancer (they either are fighting it themselves, or are related to or very close to a cancer patient/survivor or have lost a loved one to the disease), causes this ad to be an extremely effective emotional appeal.

Assignment 3 - Ethos

This ad appeals to ethos. As an ad produced by the Richard Nixon Foundation, the claim here is that this ad is to be trusted on issues regarding former President Richard Nixon and his life, claiming “You don’t know Dick!” An important objection to Richard Nixon himself is presented in the ad in the form of the damaged cassette tape and the words “Sometimes your whole life can flash by in 18 ½ minutes.” This refers to the 18 ½ minutes erased from the tapes regarding the Watergate scandal that bankrupt Nixon’s career, reputation, and might I say, his whole life. This ad acknowledges the public’s censure of Nixon and seeks to use the status of the Richard Nixon Foundation as a trustworthy platform for revealing the “real” Richard Nixon. Because this ad admits Nixon’s mistakes, it is more effective than it would have been if it had ignored Nixon’s tainted past. [Again, click on the photo for a larger view.]

Assignment 3 - Logos

This ad appeals to logos. By giving examples and making claims about the faulty electrical systems on boats, this ad gives evidence, both in pictures and in words of the claim that “The most common problem on a boat is a failure of the electrical system.” By putting the picture of the boat burning up in an electrical fire along with the very knowledgeable sounding claims on the left, the ad is effective by relaying important, logical information and a visual of the consequences. The ad also backs up the claims with a solution for the problem – buy your boat products from ANCOR to avoid faulty electrical systems and the possibility of your boat blowing up. Pathos also makes this argument effective because it appeals to the fear of dying in a fire like the one portrayed in the ad. [You can click on the photo to see it in a larger format so as to read what is written on it.]

CRI WasteCounter

I discovered this and I thought it would nicely compliment my previous post.

Assignment 1 - Visual Argument

The photo above is the detail of the photo below at actual size. The photo below depicts 2 million plastic beverage containers - the number used in the U.S. every five minutes.

The above photos [http://chrisjordan.com/] argue the extensive plastic bottle waste in America, which I agree is a real issue. Nearly 2.5 million plastic bottles are thrown away every hour in America. To conceptualize this, take the bottom photo and multiply it thirty times. The result is the number of plastic bottles thrown away instead of recycled daily in the U.S. Yearly that amounts to 21,900 million wasted bottles. What might make a difference in these numbers? Considering container deposit laws for all bottles, including water and non-carbonated beverages, may entice consumers to recycle. Currently there are only eleven states with container deposit laws (However, many do not include non-carbonated beverage containers in the legislation.). Residents in states holding container deposit laws recycle their soda bottles at an average rate of 75%, compared to 34% in other states. Enticing consumers to recycle with container deposit legislation could possibly cut the number of wasted bottles in half. [I’ve included a link to the Clean Air Council web page that offers interesting waste facts and figures.]

http://www.cleanair.org/Waste/wasteFacts.html