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Top1. Introduction And Background
In communication, it is very important to know our audience. By knowing them, the communicator or sender of message can craft a message that can appropriately persuade them. We use persuasion to motivate someone to do something or believe something that he or she would not otherwise have done or believed. Almost everyday we are all bombarded with persuasive message: companies advertise their products in social media, television, etc.; friends and co-workers convince us to do something or ask favors; teachers encourage students to learn new concepts - are only few of the examples. In order to be successful in persuading someone, we need to start with analyzing our audience.
Aristotle identified three methods in which people can be persuaded: ethos – an appeal based on credibility; pathos – an appeal based on emotions; and logos – an appeal based on logic. As part of the process of analyzing the audience, it is very important to consider these methods – or what combination – will work best to persuade each person or group (Newman, 2015). Aristotle’s rhetorical appeal also known as “Rhetorical Triangle” is a tool that helps us formulate our thoughts so that we can clearly present our position in a persuasive way. The concepts of the Rhetorical Triangle were first described by Aristotle in one of the first great books about rhetoric, surprisingly enough titled “Rhetoric”, which was written in the 4th century B.C (The Rhetorical Triangle, n.d.).
One of the areas that greatly applies Aristotle’s rhetorical triangle is advertising. Advertising is a form of persuasive and non-personal communication which is generally paid to encourage products and services by means of diverse media. Though the first advertising evidence was found dates back to 3000s BC. But, “the first advertisement in English went into print in 1472, in order to sell a prayer book. The profession of advertising begun in the United States in 1841” (Hayko, 2010, p. 79). In advertising, persuasion has been immense ongoing mysteries of rhetoric and interrelated to various discipline (Sloane, 2001). Advertisement is always expected to establish connectivity between communicators and receivers. These receivers as consumers are geographically scattered in different locations but the advertisement goes there through different mass media to manipulate them. Materialistic public are basically manipulated by advertisement in manipulating people’s strongest needs and greatest terror to persuade them to buy the favored goods and services in this capitalistic world (Kanner & Soule, 2004). In this way, any market capitalizes everything and transfers people to consumer only.
According to Ashley (2016), advertisers who want persuade their customers to buy their product applies the Aristotle’s rhetorical triangle. An advertisement using pathos will attempt to evoke an emotional response in the consumer. Sometimes, it is a positive emotion such as happiness: an image of people enjoying drinking Pepsi. Other times, advertisers will use negative emotions such as pain: a person having back problems after buying the “wrong” mattress. Pathos can also include emotions such as fear and guilt: images of a starving child persuading you to send money. An advertisement using logos will give you the evidence and statistics you need to fully understand what the product does. The logos of an advertisement will be the “straight facts” about the product: One glass of Florida orange juice contains 75% of your daily Vitamin C needs. An advertisement using ethos will try to convince you that the company is more reliable, honest, and credible; therefore, you should buy its product. Ethos often involves statistics from reliable experts, such as nine out of ten dentists agree that Crest is the better than any other brand or Americas dieters choose Lean Cuisine.