Saturday, November 17, 2012

Week 6: The Ancient Art of Rhetoric and Persuasion


Before coming to class, bring a print advertisement that you believe persuades the reader rhetorically. Explain your case using the concepts learnt this week

     Everything that we see everyday, be it advertisement in the television, posters and leaflets are meant to have an effect towards us. Blair (2004) states that the power of things visual are capable to persuade us by shaping our attitudes, beliefs as well as our actions. These are all done by persuasive effects used by the image to our eyes. How are we able to find ourselves feeling sympathetic, angry, excited, etc when we watch any advertisements in the television? Blair (2004) states that Aristotelian enthymemes is an argument in which the arguer purposely leaves unstated a premise that is essential to its reasoning. This allows the audience to fill in that unexpressed premise. This is what makes an enthymeme a rhetorical form of argument. 

      For example:

                            

      As you can see, there is a picture of a smiling and innocent baby printed with different brands coming from different companies. There is no anchorage/text written here. But if you have a critical mind, you can tell that this advertisement shows that these brands are what you have consume since we were born. With the use of enthymeme, we are able to come up with a conclusion: We are what we watch, we are what we eat, we are what we wear, we are the products that we buy. It starts at birth and it is endless. We are surrounded by so many advertisement it makes us consume these brand. The reasoning shows how pure and innocent we were until we are surrounded by these brands. This image makes me realize how our lives are constantly surrounded by them. Even before we were born, our mothers have chosen which crib to use, where to buy our baby clothes, which stroller to fit us in, etc. 

      In conclusion, visual rhetoric plays an important role in advertisement. Its main idea is to captivate viewers because not only do they want to sell their products, but visual rhetoric is one way to persuade and change one's beliefs and attitudes for example in political advertisements. The powerful use of rhetoric is the enthymeme that is indirectly stated but is left unexplained so that we as viewers are able to confirm what we see ourselves.




References:


Blair, J. A. (2004). The Rhetoric of Visual Arguments. In Hill, C. A., and Helmers, M. H. (eds.). 
Defining visual rhetorics (pp. 41-61). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.


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