Food waste is a major issue in the world. It pollutes the world, starves those who can’t even buy the lower-value food being wasted, and is a product of industrial capitalism. That is why John Oliver, a comedian, writer, commentator, and television host, did a segment about it on his show, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. In this segment on food waste, however, I found many great uses of rhetoric being used in his writing. So in this rhetorical analysis, I will point out the greatest uses of rhetoric in this segment on food waste. A major part of John Oliver’s writing is in his comedy. The show is, naturally, a comedic type. It’s the “genre”, it’s what people expect, and it’s what brings people to watch him. With that context, he chooses …show more content…
It also completely falls flat if I had cut it more, due to the inherent nature of satirical exaggeration that makes it work even longer than it should. Point is, that the genre of the show, comedy, and the word choices made, as satire, help the show become not only popular but easy to digest despite having some difficult topics. Now that we’ve gotten the biggest hurdle out of the way, let's talk about the other major pillar of the show. The purpose or requisite of the show is to comment on the subject. In accordance with this, John Oliver has to convince the audience that the subject should be cared about. In food waste specifically, Oliver uses logos, pathos, and ethos. The importance of the appeals cannot be understated, as Laura Bolin Carroll says in her article “Backpacks vs Briefcases”, “They may ask you to accept a certain kind of knowledge as valid, they may ask you to believe a certain way, or they may ask you to act”. So lets look at some examples of this happening. The first evidence that Oliver uses is an appeal to ethos in the form of a “clip” in which he brings up a recording or diagram to aid in his point. The first clip is a report from the Natural Resources Defense Council, in which the report states that “40% of all food produced in the United States never gets eaten”. …show more content…
In order to remedy this, companies are given tax breaks to incentivize it, however, small businesses are not able to get tax breaks sometimes due to Congress having to keep renewing it for them, compared to large companies which always get their tax breaks. Then you get another brain hemorrhage from hearing that Congress has decided to make it permanent, then bundle it with a bunch of other tax breaks, and then they rewrote the entire bill to be completely unrelated to anything original, renamed the bill, and then passed it like it was the same bill. Unbelievable. I would love to see this. All of those examples were appeals to rhetoric. And every single one of them has a critical part to play in convincing the audience of the catastrophic consequences of wasting food on the scale that America does. And that is just America alone, imagine how much is being wasted in China or the UK or any other major city. While this alone should be enough to convince you that this segment is packed with genius rhetoric, there is still even more to scrape from this
“The Onion’s” mock press release on the MagnaSoles satirical article effectively attacks the rhetorical devices, ethos and logos, used by companies to demonstrate how far advertisers will go to convince people to buy their products. It does this by using manipulative, “scientific-sounding" terminology, comparisons, fabrication, and hyperboles.
In 102 Minutes, Chapter 7, authors Dwyer and Flynn use ethos, logos, and pathos to appeal to the readers’ consciences, minds and hearts regarding what happened to the people inside the Twin Towers on 9/11. Of particular interest are the following uses of the three appeals.
Food Inc. is a documentary displaying the United States food industry in a negative light by revealing the inhumane, eye opening, worst case scenario processes of commercial farming for large corporate food manufacturing companies. Food Inc. discusses, at length, the changes that society and the audience at home can make to their grocery shopping habits to enable a more sustainable future for all involved.
The first element of the rhetorical structure and possibly the strongest in this documentary is pathos. Pathos refers to the emotion exhibited throughout the documentary. Food, Inc. is filled with an array of colors, sounds, stories, and images that all appeal to emotion. Miserable images of cows being slaughtered with dark music in the background, pictures of industrial factories with no sun and unhappy workers, and even a depressing and eye-opening home video of a young boy who was killed by the disease as a result of bad food were all portrayed throughout Food, Inc. Barbara Kowalcyk, mother of the late Kevin, is an advocate for establishing food standards with companies throughout the nation. When asked about her sons death, she replied, “To watch this beautiful child go from being perfectly healthy to dead in 12 days-- it was just unbelievable that this could happen from eating food.” (Food, Inc.) Obviously very devastated and still heartbroken over her loss, Kowalcyk fought
Comedian Jon Stewart gives a speech on the Daily Show during the “Rally to Restore Sanity/Fear”. He wants the viewers of the Daily Show to realize the difference between the real and fake threats and to take a humorous perspective on most of America’s “problems”. Stewart also emphasizes to his audience not to take every person on the media by his word and not to overreact to everything they hear. He uses metaphors, comparisons, and hypothetical examples to get his point across.
Kingsolver asserts that this lack of a food culture is the cause of America’s obesity epidemic, supporting her assertion with statistics that state that we produce twice as many calories as we need. Kingsolver also describes the process by which almost all of the produce, such as corn and soy, are turned into oils or fed to livestock in factory farms. Those high calorie oils make their way into all of our foods, especially into junk foods. Junk food ads specifically target children, and yet when the children become obese, it is portrayed as a “failure of personal resolve”, leaving the companies producing the
...g statistics about the public’s health and make the future seem bleak, “the lifespan is shortening for new American children” (Pastor) and “ one in three children born after the year 2010 will develop type II diabetes” (Pastor). Pastor says that he is shocked by the impact and wants to break away from the cycle created. In his closing statements he convinces the audience to break away from the cycle away as well, by drawing on the seeds he planted with pathos, ethos, and logos. The film was well made and addressed all the issues of “organic” food and well informed the audience of what is occurring. Next time, an audience member goes to the supermarket to buy food they will probably remember what their children will look like in twenty years if they don’t take a more “organic” approach to their lives.
“Women! What do they want?” John Oliver exclaims sarcastically as he begins his segment on the wage gap. John Oliver always begins his segments with sarcastic and witty comments in order to initially engage his audience which is largely young adults. His use of a news station background is what grabs the attention of news watchers. While he does discuss serious issues he does it with wit in order for his audience to come to the same conclusion as him. Knowing that the majority of his audience holds some college experience, “Last night tonight” expects the audience to be able to differentiate between the actual news and the host’s sarcasm. In his segment “Wage Gap”, host John Oliver uses statistics from the U.S Bureau of Labor, contradicting
American consumers think of voting as something to be done in a booth when election season comes around. In fact, voting happens with every swipe of a credit card in a supermarket, and with every drive-through window order. Every bite taken in the United States has repercussions that are socially, politically, economically, and morally based. How food is produced and where it comes from is so much more complicated than the picture of the pastured cow on the packaging seen when placing a vote. So what happens when parents are forced to make a vote for their children each and every meal? This is the dilemma that Jonathan Safran Foer is faced with, and what prompted his novel, Eating Animals. Perhaps one of the core issues explored is the American factory farm. Although it is said that factory farms are the best way to produce a large amount of food at an affordable price, I agree with Foer that government subsidized factory farms use taxpayer dollars to exploit animals to feed citizens meat produced in a way that is unsustainable, unhealthy, immoral, and wasteful. Foer also argues for vegetarianism and decreased meat consumption overall, however based on the facts it seems more logical to take baby steps such as encouraging people to buy locally grown or at least family farmed meat, rather than from the big dogs. This will encourage the government to reevaluate the way meat is produced. People eat animals, but they should do so responsibly for their own benefit.
Environmental advocate and cofounder of Eatingliberally.org, Kerry Trueman, in her response to Stephen Budiansky’s Math Lessons for Locavores, titled, The Myth of the Rabid Locavore, originally published in the Huffington Post, addresses the topic of different ways of purchasing food and its impact on the world. In her response, she argues that Budiansky portrayal of the Local Food Movement is very inaccurate and that individuals should be more environmentally conscious. Trueman supports her claim first by using strong diction towards different aspects of Budinsky essay, second by emphasizes the extent to which his reasoning falls flat, and lastly by explaining her own point with the use of proper timing. More specifically, she criticizes many
In the novel The Stranger by Albert Camus, the narrator’s monotonous tone makes the reader experience a lack of emotion and feeling. The novel starts off describing Mersault’s current job and how he must go on leave in order to attend his mother’s funeral. He and his mother have been disconnected for some time as they had come to a mutual agreement with her staying in an elderly home. Mersault, the main protagonist, did not have the money or time to tend to his mother. The elderly home was the best option for the both of them. When he returns home from the funeral, Mersault gets caught up in external affairs he should not be in. He ends up writing a break up letter to Raymond’s girlfriend, which drives the rest of the story. Raymond beats his
A TED Talk video is spreading ideas in a speech that takes about eighteen minutes or less.In a TED Video, the speaker uses Ethos, Pathos, and Logos, to persuade their audience to believe them.Ethos is an ethical appeal (credibility), convincing the audience that the speaker is someone worth them listening to.Pathos is when the speaker uses emotions to persuade their audience.Logos is when the speaker uses reasoning and common sense to get to their audience.
Hungry for Change is a thought provoking documentary produced by James Colquhoun and Laurentine ten Bosch that delves into the implications of eating a modern diet. Using pathos, facts and figures, and association, Hungry for Change delivers a meritorious performance that engages viewers and leaves them questioning their own diet and lifestyle choices. The film’s use of rhetorical and advertising strategies and its ability to captivate viewers make this an effective, life changing documentary.
In February 2010, a remarkable chef and speaker, Jamie Oliver, presented himself to a TED (Technology, Education, Design) audience as ruthlessly real and charismatic. In his speech, “Teach Every Child about Food” he shares powerful stories of his anti-obesity project and makes the case for an all-out assault on our ignorance of food. Jaime Oliver’s speech aims to alter the perspective of Americans and their decisions about food and its effects. Since then, Oliver’s TED talk has been viewed across the nation and brought a reality to the issue with food education. Jamie Oliver successfully utilizes ethos, logos, and pathos to portray his belief that without the use of food education, America and its children will fall under the weight of its own obesity.
In Wendell Berry’s “The Pleasures of Eating,” this farmer tells eaters how their separation from food production has turned them into “passive consumers” who know nothing about the food they eat, or their part in the agricultural process (3). They are blindsided by a food industry that does not help them understand. Berry argues that the average consumer buys available food without any questions. He states consumers that think they are distanced from agriculture because they can easily buy food, making them ignorant of cruel conditions it went through to get on the shelf. Humans have become controlled by the food industry, and regard eating as just something required for their survival. Berry wants this to change as people realize they should get an enjoyment from eating that can only come from becoming responsible for their food choices and learning more about what they eat. While describing the average consumer’s ignorance and the food industry’s deceit, he effectively uses appeals to emotion, logic, and values to persuade people to take charge, and change how they think about eating.