Plastic is a product that is very common in our everyday usage. Usage of plastics is everywhere ranging for Tupperware to the cars that we drive. Though it seems that plastics make our lives easier and has become essential element in our daily life, certainly there are people out there who are perhaps unaware of how important plastics are to our society, or people who just don’t approve of plastics because of its environmental hazard.
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An advertisement in a Health Care magazine tries to convince this audience why plastics are needed and the worth of plastics. The advertisement tries to illustrate its audience that plastics play an important role in our everyday lives and tries to make the audience question where we would be without the use of plastics. The advertisement, directed towards people that do not realise the worth of plastics or who do not approve of the use of plastics, through the use of pathos, logos, and ethos tries to persuade its audience that, “Plastics make it possible.” The pathos plays on the audience’s sympathy of why we should use plastics, the logos gives reasons how plastics are essential and why they cannot be replaced. The advertisement grabs the audience’s attention by showing a picture of a bunch of boys playing cricket. Since children are assumed to be our future generation and that the children of today shape our tomorrow, many people are concerned with the problems of our younger generations and care a great deal about what happens to our younger generations. The advertisement does a good job of playing on the audience’s emotions by involving children. The boys are wearing cricket helmets and look as though there is not one scratch on any one of them. The advertisement is trying to convey is that if it were not for the cricket helmets, which happens to be made out of plastic, then the boys would be hurt and all bruised up. The advertisement takes this issue to an extreme but the advertisement accomplishes what it is trying to do. The advertisement is getting the audience to believe that if plastics were not used the sport of cricket would cease to exist. Through the use of pathos in this advertisement the advertisement makes the audience think that if it were not for the use of plastics (a kind of fiber) the tings that the audience enjoys and the safety of children would be in jeopardy. Some advertisement try to illustrate that plastic keep food fresh, make it possible to tell if something has been tampered with, and protect foods from getting damaged. The advertisement is again trying to make the audience believe that if it were not for plastics, foods would not stay fresh for long. Again this is not entirely true since all of these things except perhaps tamper proof bottles were done before plastics were invented. The advertisement is trying to make people aware of the “vital” uses of plastics and how it plays a significant role in everyday use. The advertisement tries to show that through the technological advancement in our society we have developed plastics, which make our lives easier and are absolutely beneficial to us. With a simple citation that “plastics make it possible”.
Another way the advertisement hits the members of the audience that are still cynical with its ethos. Through the use of ethos, the advertisement builds its credibility by putting a customer care number. By doing this, inquiring people that want to find out more about how plastics plays a vital role in our lives can call to learn more. The advertisement also builds its credibility by providing a free booklet. That can offer more detailed information than the one page advertisement.
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Though the advertisement uses all three points in a melodramatic triangle, pathos, logos, and ethos in its advertisement, but it is still true that they are not good for our environment and for us too. Something that the advertisement needs to ask is who its target audience is and what will it taken to convince that audience to accept its product. Through the pathos and logos the advertisement seems to be geared towards people who are unaware of the importance of plastics or people who do not approve of plastics. The logos that the advertisement uses to persuade its audience who do not approve of the use of plastics are not effective.
None of these issues, which are brought up in the advertisement when trying to convince the audience that plastic, are useful and ‘vital’, if plastics harm the environment and the advertisement gives no argument on the improvements of the process of making plastics, or how plastics are recyclable then the advertisement is not doing an efficient job or persuading the audience to accept the use of plastics.
Submitted to RB by Nitish Gupta