Week 6 - Rhetoric in Advertising

As studied by scholars, rhetoric concerns with how things are being said rather than what are being said. The style of presentation is more focused on than the content (McQuarrie and Phillips, 2007).

While rhetorics are traditionally verbal and written, we can easily spot them in films, comics, images and  advertising which uses both images and words.

I have selected an advertisement by CORDAID which is a dutch development agency with aims to fight poverty and abolish inequality. The picture presents a person posing with a handbag. The person is possibly from Africa because of the background resembling features of african landscape. There is also words found near the handbag saying 'HANDBAG € 32.-' and 'Food for a week €4.-' Based on the information given, we can tell that the argument is that donating food to Africa which could lasts them for a week is cheaper than buying a handbag. The explanation of how we can come up with that lies in the words found on the advertisement which acts as an anchor. Although it does not directly states that donating food is cheaper or handbag is expensive, it does create a contrast between these two elements due to the involvement numbers (price). 

 

This is what Aristotle's logic is all about. According to him, the persuasive strategy of rhetoric is called enthymemes which are incomplete forms of syllogism that is a deceptive form of argument. 

A syllogism is described as "a particular kind of argument containing three categorical propositions, two of them premises, one a conclusion." (Kahane, 1990). For example:

A is based on B

B is based on C

Then, as a conclusion C is based on A

Aristotle commented that there are two types of syllogisms, perfect and imperfect. A rhetoric is the imperfect syllogism because it does not gives the reader an exact equation for them to come up with an perfect conclusion, thus creating argument. In the case of the above advertisement:

A handbag costs €32

Food for a week costs €4

Thus:

Is food cheaper than the cost of the handbag? (argument)

Is handbag more expensive than food? (argument)

Moreover, the images come into play. Since it is based in Africa where poverty strives, the reader may conclude that they should donate food rather than buy an expensive handbag. 

Advertising companies purposely leave a proposition unstated which is very important to the logic. This draws the audience to participate in its own persuasion by filling in the unexpressed premise (Blair, 2004). This is very effective because by using rhetorics, audience will think for themselves (argue) and feel that they are the ones making a decision and not pressure by the advertisers. However, CORDAID ensures their audiences thinking by stating a brief information on how to donate and lastly gives another rhetorical text 'People In Need' on the bottom. This technique is how advertisers persuade their audience.

This concept of personal relevance is a psychological context (McQuarrie and Phillips, 2007). Advertisers give a proposition which is relevant to the audience (handbag and food) thus acquiring their attention because the audience feel a connection between them and the advertisers.

References:

Blair, J. A. (2004). The rhetoric of visual arguments. In Hill, C.A, and Helmers, M. H. (eds). Defining visual rhetorics (pp. 41-61). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbau, Associaties.

McQuarrie, E. F. and Phillips, B. J. (eds) (2007). Advertising rhetoric: An introduction. Go figure! New dimensions in advertising rhetoric (pp. 3-18). New York: M. E. Sharpe, Inc.

Kahane, H. (1990). Logic and Philosophy: A Modern Introduction (pp. 270). Wadsworth Publishing Co.

Wiener, J. (1995). Aristotle's Syllogism: Logic Takes Form. Retrieved 11th September 2012 from http://perseus.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/GreekScience/Students/Jordana/LOGIC.html