Tips for Rhetorical Analysis/Ad Campaign Essay
Introduction: Think of your introduction as explaining the rhetorical situation, so you are focusing on the relationship between audience, speaker, and purpose/message.
Briefly describe the product. Identify the product name, slogan, and/or company name.
Describe your target audience. (if you think your product would benefit other demographics you can discuss this.)
Identify your purpose for selling this product.
Identify which rhetorical appeals or persuasive techniques you used most in your campaign and your reasoning behind why you relied most on these particular rhetorical appeals or persuasive techniques. (Hint: This can serve as the basis for your thesis statement.)
Body Paragraphs: Your body paragraphs should focus on describing the product and your sales campaign in more detail than in the introduction. You specifically want to focus on explaining and analyzing the rhetorical appeals and persuasive techniques that your group used when creating and selling your product.
Analyze how and why you used ethos, pathos, AND logos in your ad campaign.
For organizational purposes, you might want to begin organizing your paper by devoting ONE body paragraph to ONE appeal. In other words, when talking about ethos, it may make sense to discuss everything you did in your ad campaign to establish ethos. However I do understand that ethos, pathos, and logos can overlap, so ultimately the organization of the essay is up to your group.
Tie your target audience back into your discussion on ethos, pathos, and logos. Explain why you thought your audience would respond to that appeal or why the method that you used to present ethos, pathos, or logos was appropriate for your either your target audience or how it helped support your overall message or purpose.
You can pull specific examples of logos, pathos, and ethos from your ad to include in your essay.
Logos:
First, I would describe the “nuts and bolts” of the product itself.
In other words, what information did you provide your consumers to persuade them that this product was a necessity or a must-have item?
How did you convince them that this was a product that would make their lives more convenient, improve their quality of life, or worth the cost of the product?
If this was a product already on the market, how did you convince your customers that your product was the superior one?
Explain why this product is useful, beneficial, or valuable to your target audience. How will it meet their needs or desires?
What kind of statistics, facts, or logical/commonsensical reasoning did you provide your audience?
Then, I would explain why your group thought that providing this particular information would be effective in getting your consumers to purchase your product.
If your product would appeal to multiple audiences, do you think you would have emphasized logos more with one target audience over another? (i.e. men v. women, adults v. college students) If so, why?
Ethos:
Within your actual sales pitch, how did you create a relationship or connection with your audience? How did your group make yourself relatable to college students and make it clear that you understand their challenges or struggles?
What tactics or strategies did you use to convince your audience that your company or your product was trustworthy and reliable? Why do you think these techniques were effective in appealing to your target audience?
What did you do within your sales pitch to show that your company was not out solely for itself, but had the best interests of your customers at heart?
In other words, did you work with any charities or other organizations that help people in need?
If so, provide some information about that organization and then explain what it is about that organization’s reputation that either gives your group’s product credibility or would convince your customers to buy your product in order to support this other organization.
If you were working in cooperation with other companies who are sponsoring or endorsing your product, explain what it is about their reputation that would convince your consumers to purchase your product.
If you worked in any capacity with another company or organization, you also need to address why they would work with you.
If your product would appeal to multiple audiences, do you think you would have altered how you presented your company or product as credible depending on who your target audience was (i.e. men v. women, adults v. college students)? If so, how would you have changed how you appealed to ethos and why?
Pathos:
What emotions did you want your consumers to feel while listening to your sales pitch?
Why did you want to evoke these particular emotions? By getting your consumers to feel this particular way, did it help you sell your product more effectively? If so, how?
If your product would appeal to multiple audiences, do you think you would have emphasized pathos more with one target audience over another? (i.e. men v. women, adults v. college students) If so, why?
Additional Topics:
Discuss the visual images that you used whether that was pictures or video clips. Why did you choose those particular images? What effect or impact did you want these images to have on your target audience?
Discuss the tone and the language choice of your ad. Why choose that particular tone or language choice? How did it help appeal to your audience or support your overall purpose/message?
Discuss the way in which you presented the material. Did you rely on PowerPoint or Prezi? Did you use a tri-fold board or flyers? Did you present it commercial style? Why choose that particular presentation tool? How did it help appeal to your audience or allow you to convey the necessary information in a way that would retain the audience’s interest or provide them with enough information to convince them to buy your product?
NOTE: Some of these topics might overlap, so once again how you organize your information in your essay is completely up to you and your group.
Conclusion: Your conclusion is an overall reflection on the success of your sales pitch.
Discuss whether your ad campaign was effective or ineffective and why.
Discuss possible strategies that could have been used to make your campaign more successful. Draw from what you saw other groups doing. In other words, what techniques did other groups use that would have made your own campaign/sales pitch more successful?
You can also discuss any changes you would have made to this project to make it more effective so I can take your suggestions into account for future classes.
During the presentation, you may want to send one person in your group to listen to other groups’ presentations.
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