Analysing Rhetoric in an Advertisement

The intended audience of this ad are potential customers for trucks, as the ad emphasizes Volvo's "Volvo Dynamic Steering". By having famed action-star Jean-Claude van Damme preform a split in between two Volvo trucks fitted with dynamic steering, the advert uses both ethos and logos. By having Van Damme, a celebrity famed for similar stunts, they are giving a bit of sincerity and credibility to their advert, as people trust in Van Damme and will more willing to trust the ad as a result, fulfilling the ethos requirement. Van Damme also has a monologue where he details his life, adding to the ethos factor of the ad. To appeal to logos, the ad states that the stunt was set up to test the "stability and precision of Volvo Dynamic Steering", and as the test went on successfully, the viewer therefore concludes that the dynamic steering must be quite good, in order to have been able to achieve that stunt. To appeal to pathos, the ad has Van Damme doing a precarious stunt (the split), that would usually have viewers on 'the edge of their seats' so to say, but to counter this, they have calming music in the background, putting the viewer at ease, and also implying that the dynamic steering is so good, Van Damme was never in any real danger. All of these factors seek to get the viewer to see Volvo Dynamic Steering as a superior product to their competitors, and hopefully for them, as a result, buy more Volvo trucks.

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Print Advertisement: Nivea Moisturizer

To start off, here's some basic information about the advert. Its target audience is young women, as the main focus of the advert is a young woman, and the product is cosmetic, a product type commonly advertised to this target audience. The cosmetic in question is "Nivea Smooth Milk: Body", a type of moisturizing cream. As the ad is written in English and comes from a German (Western) company, it can be concluded that this advert comes from a Western cultural background. Since Nivea was founded in 1911, it can be inferred that this ad was made in 2011, due to the quote "100 years skin care for life". The ad seems to imply that physical attractiveness is the most important factor in a happy relationship, due to the happy couple featured in the image, and the slogan "For visibily smooth and touchably soft skin" (misspellings came with the ad), which seems to imply to the viewer that moisturizer brought the couple closer together (the image has the...

What is Shakespeare’s larger purpose in his characterisation of Coriolanus in Act I?

One of Act one’s main purposes, in terms of the characterisation of Coriolanus is to showcase the aspects of Coriolanus’ personality and the context that it brings up. Shakespeare portrays Coriolanus as a decisive and effective battlefield commander in the battle scenes, by having Coriolanus give rising and encouraging speeches, “Now put your shields before your hearts, and fight With hearts more proof [strong] than shields” -Act 1 Scene 4, lines 33-34 and in lines 58, where Coriolanus calls on his men to follow him. The fact that Coriolanus is able to capture Corioles and hold his own against Aufidius is contextual proof of his skill as both soldier and commander. Shakespeare also details both the inner and physical strength of Coriolanus, through quotes such as: “The blood I drop is rather physical Than dangerous to me.” -Act 1 Scene 5, lines 20-21 and “…why cease you till you are so?” (context is Coriolanus is asking if th...

Okonkwo as a Tragic Hero (Things Fall Apart)

Taking the cultural context of Things Fall Apart into account, there are a few reasons for why Achebe would characterise Okonkwo using the tragic hero archetype. The character of Okonkwo could be an allegory for the Ibo people as a whole, for example, since throughout the story we see various parallels between Okonkwo’s situation and the situation of the Ibo people and culture. In Part One of the book, both Okonkwo and the Ibo people are well established; Okonkwo has wealth, family, and stability, and the Ibo society is functioning as it has been in the years before. However, in Part Two, we see this begin to unravel, as Okonkwo is exiled, and the colonisers begin to arrive, introducing Christianity, slaughtering a village; bringing great change, and shaking up the cultural stability. At the end of Part Three, we see the full breakdown of both Okonkwo and the old Ibo culture. Okonkwo, of course, kills a court messenger, and then kills himself wh...

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