English Language Arts
Grade 9
15 min
Identify appeals to ethos pathos and logos in advertisements
Identify appeals to ethos pathos and logos in advertisements
What you'll learn
- Identify at least three examples of ethos, pathos, or logos used in a given set of advertisements with 80% accuracy.
- Explain how each appeal (ethos, pathos, and logos) is intended to persuade the audience in a specific advertisement, providing clear reasoning for each choice.
- Analyze an advertisement and determine which of ethos, pathos, or logos is the primary appeal being used, justifying the choice with specific textual evidence.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of ethos, pathos, and logos in a selected advertisement and provide a reasoned argument supporting the evaluation.
Tutorial Preview
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Introduction & Learning Objectives
Learning Objectives
Define ethos, pathos, and logos in the context of persuasive media.
Identify the target audience of a given advertisement.
Locate specific visual and textual evidence of ethos, pathos, and logos in print and video ads.
Explain how advertisers use these appeals to influence a specific target audience.
Analyze how multiple appeals work together to create a cohesive and persuasive message.
Articulate their analysis of an advertisement's rhetorical strategies in a clear, evidence-based statement.
Ever watched a commercial and suddenly felt hungry, happy, or even sad? commercials are designed to make you feel and think certain things, and we're about to learn their secrets. 🤫
This tutorial will teach you about the 'Rhetorical Triangle':...
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Key Concepts & Vocabulary
TermDefinitionExample
RhetoricThe art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the use of figures of speech and other compositional techniques.A politician using a powerful story to persuade citizens to vote for a new law is using rhetoric.
Ethos (Appeal to Credibility)A persuasive appeal based on the character, credibility, or authority of the speaker or brand. It answers the question: 'Why should I trust you?'A toothpaste ad featuring a dentist's recommendation uses ethos. The dentist's professional authority makes the product seem trustworthy.
Pathos (Appeal to Emotion)A persuasive appeal to the audience's emotions. It can target happiness, fear, guilt, nostalgia, anger, or any other feeling to create a connection.An ad for a pet shelter showi...
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Key Rules & Conventions
The Ethos Check: The Trust Test
Look for experts, celebrities, official certifications, or language that emphasizes experience, tradition, or morality.
Use this check to identify appeals to authority and credibility. Ask yourself: Does this ad try to convince me by showing that the brand or its spokesperson is trustworthy, respectable, or an expert?
The Pathos Check: The Feeling Test
Look for images, music, stories, and words that evoke a strong emotional response (e.g., happiness, fear, nostalgia, pity).
Use this check to identify appeals to emotion. Ask yourself: Is this ad trying to make me feel a certain way? Does it use cute animals, heartwarming family scenes, scary situations, or humor?
The Logos Check: The Logic Test
Look for numbers, statistics, data, charts,...
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Challenging
An ad for a brand of jeans features a very famous, trend-setting musician wearing them. The ad has no words, only music and images of the musician looking cool. Which statement provides the most sophisticated analysis of this ad's rhetoric?
A.The ad uses logos by showing the logical conclusion that wearing the jeans makes you a musician.
B.The ad relies almost exclusively on ethos, using the musician's credibility to sell the product, but this ethos is designed to trigger a pathos response in the target audience.
C.The ad uses pathos by playing music, but it fails because it does not include a logical reason to buy the jeans.
D.The ad uses all three appeals equally: the musician is ethos, the music is pathos, and the jeans themselves are logos.
Challenging
A public service announcement about smoking shows a graphic image of a diseased lung, followed by the statistic 'Smokers are 25 times more likely to develop lung cancer.' The final shot is of a grieving family. How does the ad's structure manipulate the audience?
A.It presents the logical information first to prepare the audience for the emotional content.
B.It uses a shocking image (pathos) to make the audience receptive to the statistic (logos), and reinforces the message with more pathos (grieving family).
C.It relies entirely on logos because the statistic is the most important part of the message.
D.It uses the ethos of the grieving family to make the scientific data more credible.
Challenging
An advertiser is creating a campaign for a new, extremely expensive sports car. Their target audience is very wealthy, status-conscious individuals. Which combination of appeals would likely be MOST effective?
A.Primarily logos, focusing on fuel efficiency and cost savings.
B.Primarily pathos and ethos, focusing on feelings of exclusivity, power, and prestige, possibly using a celebrity known for their success.
C.balance of all three, with a detailed breakdown of the car's price compared to competitors.
D.Primarily logos, using complex engineering charts and data to prove the car is well-made.
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Identify appeals to ethos pathos and logos in advertisements is a Grade 9 English Language Arts lesson on ExcelOS.
What will I learn in Identify appeals to ethos pathos and logos in advertisements?
You'll be able to: Identify at least three examples of ethos, pathos, or logos used in a given set of advertisements with 80% accuracy; Explain how each appeal (ethos, pathos, and logos) is intended to persuade the audience in a specific….
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This lesson includes 25 practice questions across multiple difficulty levels, each with instant feedback and explanations.