Cultural Rhetoric

While browsing Youtube, I came across a video called Always #LikeAGirl. In the video, three women, one boy, and one man were asked to show what it looked like to run, throw, and fight “like a girl”. Each of them gave very predictable performances that can be seen as degrading to girls. Then, young girls were asked the same questions. Each of the girls gave completely different performances then the first set of people did, revealing to the viewer that doing something “like a girl” has become an insult in our society. Also, because of this, using “like a girl” as an insult leads to the lack of self-confidence within young girls, especially girls who are going through puberty. The video then comes to an end with women speaking out against using “like a girl” as an insult and how doing something “like a girl” is not a bad thing. I can definitely see rhetoric being used in this video by the obvious usage of ethos and pathos. Ethos is being used by the people in the video by them tryi...

I was watching TV and noticed a Direct TV commercial. In these commercials they use a series of illogical events to explain why cable is bad and why direct TV is good. They used appeal to fear like in most of their commercials that if you don’t have direct TV then this bad thing will happen to you. It seems to persuade or at the very least entertain people since they are very popular and a lot of people know about them. The speaker is very convincing because of his mix between appeal to emotion and appeal to fear. People think that it is funny and like it, but see what “bad things” could happen and get scared. Their argument was not reasonable but it was still convincing and funny which nowadays makes a commercial successful since it’s all about recognition. Having a logical argument is not the biggest deal, because commercials are no longer logical. They way that commercials work is just having people notice them, so when somebody says “Hey, I need new TV” people will say “Well I’...

I found rhetoric used in a Korean promotional video for UNICEF. It starts with sad music and shows pictures of poor children in Africa who are sitting on a dirty floor and studying in poor surroundings. After that, the most handsome and famous actor in Korea shows up. He is playing with skinny kids who look really starved and tired but are smiling at the camera. It also shows sick children lying in bed with hopeless faces. The Korean actor then strokes their cheeks and gives them a lot of hugs and medicine with a gentle smile. He narrates some touching words like, “The children I met still live in my heart. All children should be healthy and happy but there are so many children starving and suffering from diseases. They need your love. Their lives can change with your little help. Please give them hope.” The advertisement uses sound and photographs to appeal to the viewers’ emotions. Stirring music and pictures of poor, starving children make us feel pity for them and make us feel ...