Cultural Rhetoric

While I was watching TV, I watched a Coca-Cola commercial. I noticed that this commercial mainly used the appeal of pathos, which is the appeal to emotion, to persuade its viewers to buy a coke. This commercial tries to persuade people that they will be happy if they purchase a coke. In the commercial, two girls come into the store to buy more and more cokes to share with their friends for the summer. After they buy the cokes, the commercial shows clips of fun things they do together as they are drinking coke, such as spraying each other with hoses during a car wash, riding skateboards and bikes, and throwing a party. This appeals to the emotions happiness and envy. The commercial tries to convince its audience that through a coke, they can make new friends and have an amazing summer, which makes people feel happy. The commercial also appeals to the emotions pity and sympathy. The boy cashier who checks out the cokes for the two girls becomes more and more sad because he knows tha...

In this Ted Talk, Wanis Kabbaj describes a world where there are no traffic jams and how beneficial it could be. He begins his speech with pictures of cities with different scenarios, which is a good way to grab the audience’s attention. He continues to use pictures throughout his speech to help portray what he is saying. Wanis brings up the idea of flying cars and how a company known as “Air Bus” has been successful in creating urban flying taxis. Although flying cars could solve traffic jams, he points out a better way to eliminate traffic. He compares transportation with the vascular system and informs the audience that red blood cells use up all the space they can without creating jams. This is the way he thought transportation should look like. Wanis thinks that it is possible to create vehicles that combine the convenience of cars with the efficiency that trains and buses possess. He designed a train in his head that is made up of several wagons. The wagons can detach dynamical...

This past Sunday, my pastor decided to create a sermon based off of the idea of how God is a sanctuary for Christians. He taught from Isaiah 8:9-9:7. In chapter 8, the author describes how Israel suffered from Assyria’s attack and rejected God because they were angry. My pastor pointed out that this was Israel’s worst nightmare coming to life. He related this situation to our own lives by challenging and questioning us. He asked us if we believed that God will always remain faithful to us, restore, and rebuild us even when our worst nightmare becomes our reality. He challenged us to praise God through the trials in our lives instead of being paralyzed by fear, like Israel. They forgot that God is their sanctuary and security at all times. In chapter 9, the birth of Jesus is prophesied. Our pastor emphasized that the birth of Jesus is our hope and his birth, crucifixion, death, and resurrection is the answer to everything that has ever threatened us. My pastor splits up his sermons in...