Moore,

Zhang, and Hamblett 1

Kathryn Moore, Joy Zhang, and Madelyne Hamblett

Mrs. Thompson
AP Lang, Block 1, Skinny B
12 March 2015
Rhetorical Analysis
Imagine yourself at a sunny beach in the Maldives, toes in the sand, and
completely relaxed. That sentence alone has the ability to compel someone to purchase
an airplane ticket to go straight to the Maldives. Ads have the power to motivate or
persuade, and with rhetorical analysis, people have the power to discover how they are
being persuaded. Think of all the ads you see on a daily basis. With rhetoric knowledge,
you can figure out which ads are most likely to persuade you. Ads are everywhere.
Whether being from newspapers you glance at while walking across a street or from a
magazine you see some teenage girl reading, ads use a variety of ways to grab your
attention. Methods such as evoking emotion, utilizing logic, and intriguing the morals of
people are ways ad companies use to persuade their target audiences. Every ad is an
astute argument to appeal to a particular audience.
A news ad, featured in Time Magazine, depicts a new Toyota Highlander filled
with characters from the CBS show called The Muppets, driving through a beautiful
landscape. The slogan on the ad reads, Room for the whole crew. No room for boring.
This ad attempts to persuade its audience, drivers, to purchase the all-new Toyota
Highlander with a stratagem using pathos and humor. The use of pathos in this ad
targets the feeling of nostalgia in its audience. Toyota used The Muppets as reclamation

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to the classic characters known by all, and include the target audience and their
memories of childhood. The use of an all-inclusive picture of Universal Studios most
beloved Muppet characters as well as a slogan that doubles a popular Muppets song
(No Room for Boring) evoke nostalgia in many of the viewers. This method helps draw
people in to remember the ad. In addition, the description for the car includes an
unexpected appeal to humor since people would expect the fine print of any ad to be
the usual disclosure text. The description reads With seating for up to eight and
increased storage behind the third row. Highlander has room for you and all your little
monsters. Plus a few chickens, an ogre and a king prawn. Since adults are typically the
ones to buy new cars, the company takes in consideration the children (little
monsters) buyers may have. Changing the customary insipid ways of presenting the
disclosure aided the ads effectiveness. Both of these are rhetorical methods of
persuading the audience by making them laugh. The ad also shows humor through the
ads image, which has Muppets sticking out of the windows as the chicken Muppet trails
behind, chasing the car. With the rhetoric of pathos, stimulating nostalgia and humor,
this news ad for the Toyota Highlander effectively reaches its target audience.
The non-news ad, featured in Seventeen Magazine, shows the shining face of a
smiling teenage girl next to a bottle of Clean and Clear face wash. This ad also uses
pathos to persuade its audience, young girls, to purchase Clean and Clears face
products. The pathos of this ad evokes the positive and negative emotions that go along
with self-esteem. By showing a beautiful and flawless girl smiling, the ad stimulates self-
confidence from the readers since it can make them feel as if they are (or can be) the

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girl in the ad. Clean and Clear encourages girls to show off their true beauty with the
slogan, See the real me. It motivates them to buy the product. The message is for girls
to stop using cosmetics to cover their flawed skin, but instead use the face wash to clear
their imperfections. The add also uses slight scare tactics to cause girls to feel they need
the face wash by making girls believe they cannot be beautiful even with acne. Overall,
these uses of rhetoric, especially the use of pathos in targeting self-esteem, effectively
reach its target audience.

While both ads use the rhetoric of pathos and effectively persuade their target

audiences, Toyotas ad is more persuasive due to many factors. First, Toyota has a more
inclusive audience. The Clean and Clear ad covers a fairly small audience, which is
teenagers with acne, and reduced its audience further by only appealing to girls by
displaying a young girl on the ad. Toyotas ad not only appeals to drivers through the
image of the car, but also through the image of the beloved cast of Muppet characters,
which potentially expands the ads audience. Toyotas ad also evokes stronger emotions
compared to the Clean and Clear ad. Instead of simply appealing to self-esteem,
Toyotas ad draws in its audience with the use of nostalgia and humor; the ad causes
those who grew up with the Muppets to reminisce about childhood memories. Those
who didnt grow up with the Muppets can still get a laugh from it too. In the end, the
Toyota ad did a better job of using rhetoric to convince or persuade its audience in favor
of their product.
In conclusion, both analyzed ads exhibited elements of rhetoric and provided effective
methods of persuasion. Appeals to emotion, humor, or credibility are strong factors to

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enhance an ad's efficiency and are presented in the Toyota and Clean and Clear ads.
However, audiences should be aware of the logical fallacies that can be indirectly
displayed. The Clean and Clear ad, if closely examined, relies on a hasty generalization.
Not every teenager has the same type of skin; some skin types may be too dry for the
product and some may be too oily for the product. Beauty products are always a trial
and error for any individual since skin types lie in disparity; therefore, the 'cleansing'
face wash Clean and Clear promoted does not apply to their entire audience. Its slogan
"See the real me" is only cogent to customers if the product works for them. Ads are
crafty pieces of work that can be auspicious or deceiving-- it is up to readers to analyze
and discover any fallacies.