Analysis Of The Use Of Rhetorical Devices In Advertisements

The purpose of advertisements is not only to inform, but also to persuade. More specifically, advertising is usually an attempt to persuade a target audience to buy products, use a service, and/or support a cause. Most advertisements combine different types of rhetorical devices to be most effective. To add an artful twist to the design of an advertisement, rhetorical devices are often used. The ad I chose to use for this assignment is for a Lunchables lunch packs. The ad uses vivid imagery with lots of specific colors designed to illicit an emotion. It also uses personification giving human qualities and attributes to animals. Lastly, it uses hyperbole with its message that every box is bursting with fun.

The ad was located in a US Weekly magazine whose main demographics are adult woman ages 18-49. The ad has a school-aged girl with an exciting facial expression intently looking at and enjoying the action coming out of the product box. The ad is located in a magazine used mainly by woman. Therefore, the target audience for this ad would be mothers and ultimately their children.

Another aspect of advertisement is the use of ethos, pathos, and logos in ads. These are used to appeal to a person’s character, emotion, or logic. Ethos appeals to the ethics or credibility of the ad, pathos appeals to the emotions of the audience, and logos appeals using logic and/or reasoning. The ad I chose uses pathos to appeal to mothers. Pathos is a very effective technique because it appeals to the audience’s emotional side. This is a good technique because it helps lesson insecurities about the products advertised and lowers the risks of using the product. Pathos is also effective at getting a message or point across to the audience and making it stick. Kids can be extremely fussy eaters and cause a lot of heartache to mothers. The ad is using the emotion and being excited to show parents that kids would have “fun” eating this product. A mother looking at this ad and seeing a beautiful little girl excitedly awaiting the Lunchables may be emotional persuaded to purchase their products. This ad also uses a lot of vivid imagery in an effort to illicit an emotional response, which is pathos.

The ad also uses logos by pointing out that if you use this product, every box will burst with fun.

Vivid Imagery

This ad uses a lot of visual imagery to push across their point that this product will provide children with appealing items that they will enjoy. The colors used are very powerful. According to an article written by Mydee Lasquite, “choosing the right color in advertising projects plays a very important role in the success of visual campaigns. Advertisements use color to captivate the audience’s attention. Study have shown that different colors evoke different feelings in the viewer.” For example, red equals exciting and bold, orange equals friendly and cheerful, yellow is warm and optimistic, green equals healthy and peaceful, blue equals strong and dependable, and purple equals creative and imaginative. In my ad, the products box is actually green. I think they used this color to communicate that this product is healthy. Bursting out of the box is host of other colors, characters, items, and objects. The red used in this area of the advertisement produce excitement. Another color dominating the ad is orange. Orange is supposed to give a friendly/cheerful vibe. The young girl in the ad is smiling looking at the excitement coming out of the box. Her demeanor says cheerful. The last dominate color in the advertisement is purple which creates a feeling creativity and imagination.

Personification

By definition, personification is a figure of speech that gives human form or feelings to animals, or life and personal attributes to inanimate objects, or to ideas and abstractions. The effectiveness of personification in advertisement lies in its ability to give products emotion and liveliness. Studies have shown that personified products can foster more trust and affection in potential customers and therefore create more desire for the purchase. The ad I chose to use uses personification to add to the excitement of the overall ad and the message of the ad of, “Every box is bursting with fun.” There is a rabbit and a duck-billed platypus with “cool” glasses on playing instruments as if they are in concert. This technique, developed with the objective of appealing to the senses of children does a good job in my opinion.

Hyperbole

Hyperbole is an extreme exaggeration that is not intended to be taken literally. The purpose of using hyperbole in advertisement is to help people remember your product by imagining it as grand, larger than life. My ad has the text, “Every box is bursting with fun” and shows a young girl with her hands placed in an exciting manner and she has a cheerful facial expression that sends the message that she is enjoying the actions of the bunny and duck-billed platypus. Marketers use such hyperbolic statements to attract customers, not with the facts about their products but with wild exaggerations not intended to reflect the truth. We know that eating this product may satisfy my hunger, but most likely will not cure a case of boredom.