Pathos: ScotTissue Towels

The primary rhetorical appeal of this ad is pathos. The dark red and black colors of the background and text are meant to distill a sense of fear into the reader. This disgruntled looking employee looking disgustedly at the poor quality paper towels makes the audience subconsciously think that there is something wrong with the towels he is using. The large, bold, red letters "Bolsheviks" is meant to further instill a sense of fear, fear of communism. Whilst these emotions are running through the audience, ScotTissue towels then attempts to capture the reader into buying there product. They do this by saying that the inferior towels of other brands leads to unrest in the working class. It is implied that this slippery slope will lead America straight to communism unless you begin buying these higher quality towels.

-LJ Brooks

Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 9, 2017 at 8:36 PM

    I agree that ads and media often use colors and images to influence feelings in the audience and get an emotional reaction based on preconceived ideas and associations that people have on color and emotions

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kaitlyn FrancisOctober 10, 2017 at 4:55 PM

    This advertisement definitely touches on the topic that created a lot of emotion during the time, and they take advantage of this to catch people's attention and use something that will definitely draw people in.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownOctober 10, 2017 at 5:36 PM

    The red text definitely captures the audiences attention right away and draws them in to look more in depth in the poster. I like how you mentioned slippery slope because a lot of propaganda utilizes this fallacy to influence the audience to support their cause.

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownOctober 11, 2017 at 4:06 PM

    I agree that the ad also employs the slippery slope fallacy as an enhancers to the heavy appeal to pathos. The consumers were expected to be fearful of anything communism so this ad exhibits a shock factor causing their emotions to bubble up. That led them to need a release and this paper towel brand was the only solution they could think of.

    ReplyDelete

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