Ethics of Rhetoric

As I type this response on my opinions of rhetorical appeals with commercials, I am wiping tears from a commercial I just watched. I’ll link the commercial here because it’s worth watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL-RRz0G5Mc/. Anyway, I believe the rhetoric’s often used with commercials are highly effective, depending on which appeal is used (even if you feel that commercials do not have any impact on your purchases).

To me, I believe that the reaction depends entirely on each person’s individual experience. More often than not, if the commercial has a pathos appeal than a person definitely has a higher rate of following through with the purchase or at least their thoughts are primed with the products idea, which makes the consumer more likely to go for that brand. For example, there are multiple commercials for Extra gum that have a really great message behind them — along with creativity and great videography. When I was in high school, I showed this example to my AP English Language class and my teacher actually started balling her eyes out in the middle of class and used the song from this commercial in her wedding after the fact: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NemtQx0m0Ss. I understand that it is just gum, but I pretty much only grab Extra gum because my mind is primed because of the commercials I’ve watched.

But when it comes to toothpaste commercials, I feel that all of them have this famous catchphrase “9 out of 10 doctors recommend”. Therefore, it does not really affect any of my purchases when I run out of toothpaste. I just get whichever makes my teeth feel and look the best, something that I am comfortable with, and have used for quite some time. Commercials about toothpaste feel often useless since they all use the same, worn-out tactics.