I noticed rhetoric being implemented in a sermon given by a young man from Freedom Village while our basketball team was at the Ross Corners tournament in Vestal, New York. Freedom Village is a small school in New York where young men are sent to be introduced to God after they get involved in dark actions. The boy's name was Christian, and he stood up during chapel and gave a message about how he came to find God after falling into some undesirable things earlier in his life. He spoke about how he became distanced from God and that Freedom Village had helped him get his life centered back to Christ. He mentioned how the comaradary with the boys helped him become less selfish and that basketball had especially helped him express himself in a positive way. He emphasized that everyone deserves a second chance and that he has learned to accept the challenges that will present themselves in his life, as they are all a part of God's plan for him. In this sermon, Christian used rhetoric by connecting with the audience and appealing to their feelings. He used a personal story to establish credibility and keep the members of the crowd engaged and interested. Pathos and ethos were prevalent in his testimony, but there was not much logos that I noticed. I think that when it comes to a sermon, ethos and pathos are most important in this setting. Logos could be used to further explain what the speaker is trying to communicate, but I don't believe it is always necessary depending on the topic of the testimony.
While browsing on Google I found an old advertisement. The ad was for Lustre-Crème Shampoo. It featured Marilyn Monroe, known for her beauteous looks and her parts in different movies. One of her movies was Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Lustre-Crème was attempting to sell their shampoo through the use of fallacies. By saying that Marilyn Monroe that tells you nothing about the actual product: it simply attracts you to the pretty face in the picture. Using this as an argument of why someone should buy your product is quite illogical. Just because Marilyn Monroe uses it doesn’t provide assurance of its abilities. They attempt using snob appeal by trying to make the audience believe that they could be like Marilyn Monroe if they use the same product as her. They use appeal to illegitimate authority by using Marilyn Monroe to promote their product. Although she herself is a customer, this is still rather irrelevant. She herself has no type of expertise in hair products and knows nothing that
This is a really cool story. I think it's a great thing that sports in general can help release a lot of the stress people feel in their lives. It's great that Christian'school life was turned around because of Freedom Village.
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