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short paper about ethos, pathos and logos in commercials...

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Ethos, Logos and pathos Evaluation in Commercials

Tanisha Boston

ENG 102

01/22/20

In this paper I will talk about the use of ethos, pathos and logos in commercials and how they are effective to the target audience. Pathos is a quality that evokes emotion, Ethos is an argument that appeals to the audience by emphasizing the speaker’s credibility and authority, and Logos is an attempt to convince the audience be employing reason or logic. Based on these definitions, it can be said that all of these devices are some form of persuasion so for my two commercials I will identify which and how these devices are being used. The first commercial I will review is the Huggies Lullaby Commercial. Being mainly a diaper company but also having a few name brand baby products, this Huggies commercial’s target audience is for people who have or are taking care of a child. In the first seconds of the commercial, a mother is holding her aby and singing them a lullaby. This scene immediately screams pathos because most can agree that motherhood and the bond between a mother and her baby is quite unique and all around precious. As she continues to sing, we see many different infants and their parents/ guardians who are trying to do what’s best for the baby. For example, as the lyrics “And although it isn’t fair, your sister’s gonna have to learn to share,” are sung, a little girl reluctantly gives her younger sibling a toy that she surely wanted for herself. I think the audience can relate to this because for those who have siblings, I’m sure there has been quite a few times when they were forced to share, or even give up some of their possessions to their siblings. Although reluctant at the time, just like the girl in the commercial, being a bit frustrated because of having to share would only be a temporary feeling when seeing a baby smiling and laughing because of a toy. Something like that would melt anyone’s heart. That kind of relation is what evokes feelings from the audience, hence pathos is used in a strong way.

The ethos used in tis commercial is almost directly tied in with pathos in the sense that that scenes in the commercial are depicting families in situations trying to take care of the babies needs best they can. Nothing in the commercial directly says “You should treat your baby like this” or “wouldn’t you do this for your baby?’ but there are many examples connoting these expressions. For example, the lyric “And before he’s at your door, your uncle swears he won’t smoke anymore.” Most people understand that its common sense to not smoke around babies (or preferably at all but that’s another story) because they don’t have strong immune systems and smoke carries a lot of harmful chemicals that can make them very, very sick. This shows ethos because why would you want to make your baby sick? No one does right? It isn’t ethical, it’s not right. Through this connotation it is evident that the Huggies Corporation wants the best for you baby which gains them credibility, hence making the audience trust their product more. There is no logos present in this commercial as there are no statistics or logic used in order to convince the audience. One could argue that it is logical to do the things you see in the commercial for your baby because its common sense to take care of them but it is not so much logical as it is ethically important to want to provide this type of care because these actions aren’t facts or data. They are feelings, bonding between parent and child and that is the ethos and pathos aspects of this commercial.

Huggies Commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDfjwF_bS6A

The target audience for Charmin’s Ultra soft toilet paper commercial is obvious, I hope. Literally anyone that uses toilet paper, which I hope is the majority of the world, would be interested in this. The commercial itself is very short so there’s not much time to fit all of the persuasive devices in which is why I believe they mainly used logos and pathos. There’s really nothing ethical about what brand of toilet paper you use if any so it understandable as to why there is no attempt at incorporating ethos into this commercial. Logos is first evident when they are comparing their ultra-soft toilet paper to “the leading brand.” It shows the bear fluffing up 200 sheets of Charmin ultra-soft next to another 200 sheets of the leading brand while claiming that “Charmin ultra-soft is twice as absorbent, so you can use less!” Because they used numerical values such as “2x stronger” and displaying 200 sheets from each brand, the audience could make a safe conclusion that Charmin ultra soft would give you more for less which is always the logical choice when trying to save money…and toilet paper. The pathos isn’t so obvious but when the bears talk about how soft it feels I think that also evokes feelings of security in the fact that it won’t hurt their bum and cleans better than any other toilet paper. Charmin ultra soft commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtWLhs179n4

I have written this paper to show my understanding of ethos, logos and pathos and how it can be used in media such as commercials to persuade the audience to buy what the author is saying, whether that be information or a product. I think I did well in identifying which devices were being used and how. I gave many examples and explained why it was said device to the best of my ability. However I could work more on explaining why the devices were effective and what that achieved for whoever is trying to sell that information/product...