In everyday life we are bombarded with advertisements, projects, and commercials from companies trying to sell their products. Many of these ads use rhetorical devices to “convey meaning [,] or persuade” their audiences (Purdue OWL) . Projects, such as the Dove Self-Esteem Project uses native advertising in their commercials, which refers to a brand or product being simultaneously and indirectly promoted. In this essay, I will analyze the rhetorical devices, such as ethos, pathos, logos, and kairos, as well as the fallacies corresponding to each device, that the Dove Company uses in their self-esteem project . The Dove Self-Esteem Project is set on changing the way young girls' feel about themselves and teaching those with insecurities to …show more content…
learn, love, and accept their bodies. There are young girls' of different racial backgrounds, body types, hair color, etc., whom speak about their insecurities in the official commercial for Dove’s Self-Esteem Project. In the commercial Dove never spotlights a famous person like other companies. This being said, the Dove Company in the commercial has a strong utilization of ethos, which is “elements of a speech that reflected on the particular character of the speaker or the speech’s author” (Purdue OWL). Dove serves as the ethical appeal. The Dove Company is portrayed as the ethical component in this commercial because they take responsibility for the image as well as the message the self-esteem project promotes to insecure young girls’. An example of this is when Dove states, “At Dove, we believe no girl should be held back from reaching her full potential.” However, the project does commit ethical fallacies in advertisement. For example the fallacy ad populum “argues that a claim must be true since a large number of people believe in it” (Standford Encyclopedia). The Dove Self-Esteem Project mentions, “60% of girls' are so concerned with the way they look that they opt out of important activities” (Dr. Susie Orbach). Dove uses experts such as psychologists, psychiatrists, and doctors to confirm the statements made in their project. There are no specific scientific findings indicating that young girls' opt out of activities because of the way they look, but the general public tends to believe in this statement due to the high percentage. In fact, ad verecundiam is another fallacy which is simply relying on what you think is an expert’s opinion when it is not. Dove uses this ethical appeal and native advertising to promote self-esteem issues, but having an end goal to sell their products. Pathos is the main rhetorical element used throughout the Dove Self-Esteem Project commercial. Pathos is an “ [uses] elements of a speech [to appeal] to any of the audience's sensibilities” (Purdue OWL). Pathos is used when the commercial exhibits young girls' identifying all the features they wish they had or did not have. The girls' with angelic voices and wide-eyes speak directly into the camera to make the viewer reflect and relate on their own insecurities. There were also instances that compared one girl’s desired feature with another’s. For example, a girl with brown eyes said, “I wish I had blue eyes.” The frame would then switch to a girl with blue eyes who confessed, “I wish I had brown eyes.” The commercial for this project uses a choir of girls' as background music to complement the other girls' speaking. The background of this commercial is always very light, soft, and pure. Pathos can be intermixed in the native advertising because it matches the function and the appealing platform. The Dove Company includes a variety of beauty products for hair and skincare whose sales increase, by exploiting young girls' insecurities. The fallacy emotive language is commited, which is the use of emotional language not supported by evidence such as Dove’s use of pathos in the commercial. For example, Dove states on their website “anxiety over appearance keeps girls' from being their best selves, [which affects] their health, friendships and even performance at school” (Dr. Susie Orbach). Although there is no specific evidence supporting that theory, the statement receives an emotional reaction from their viewers. Pathos appeal to the audience's emotions makes the Dove Self-Esteem Project effective because it is relatable. In the Dove Self-Esteem Project commercial, logos brings to surface young girl's self-esteem issues.
Logos is the appeal to logic and reason and using reason to support claims. The project promotes their claim by reaching out to these young girls' and encouraging that they can “develop a positive relationship with the way they look” (Dove), which is also the solution to their argument. Their argument being that the Dove Self-Esteem project can teach young girls’ to love and accept themselves. However in promoting young girl’s self-esteem the general public also supports Dove products. The Dove Self-Esteem Project uses inductive reasoning which takes a specific case and makes a generalization from it. For example, “One in five girls’ in the U.S. feels negativity about her own looks when not wearing makeup. Globally, only 11% of girls’ would call themselves beautiful” (Dr. Susie Orbach). Dove makes generalizations about the reason girls’ feel negative about their looks. One reason being that they have no makeup, which is an example of the fallacy hasty generalization that draws an overall conclusion without supporting evidence. The fallacy false dichotomy is committed when the Dove Self-Esteem Project only presents two alternatives to feeling beautiful and having a positive self-esteem, when in fact there are more alternatives to …show more content…
consider. The Dove Self-Esteem Project launched eleven years ago and continues today. This project, no matter the year, falls into the device kairos, which is an “element of a speech that acknowledge and draws support from the particular setting, time, and place a speech occurs” (Purdue Owl). In other words the right time and opportunity for the issue. Self-esteem and body issues has continued to be an issue over the course of years not only in the United States but around the world. The Dove Self-Esteem Project takes a complete artificial construct because they take advantage of the public’s increasing awareness of how popular culture influences standards of beauty,to look and feel beautiful, which Dove portrays throughout their commercial. As Dove increases awareness, their sales increase. Dove does not explicitly tell the public to buy their product but it is what and who they stand for. Not only is self-esteem a prominent issue, but the commercial showcases the need for political correctness today by casting young girls' with different racial backgrounds. Overall, the Dove Self-Esteem Project makes a compelling argument of reaching young girls' insecurities and self-esteem through their use of ethos, pathos, logos, and kairos in their commercials.
Dove addressed a prominent issue in young girls’ lives today by their use of kairos. Through ethos, Dove develops a strong ethical appeal to their audience. The commercial would not be impactful without the use of pathos to appeal to the audience's emotion. The use of logos gives an argument and a solution to the self-esteem issue. Although the Dove Self-Esteem Project commercial does have native advertising that sells their product indirectly and commits many fallacies, the ethical and emotional appeal in the commercial makes the project not only relatable, but
effective.
Advertisements often employ many different methods of persuading a potential consumer. The vast majority of persuasive methods can be classified into three modes. These modes are ethos, pathos, and logos. Ethos makes an appeal of character or personality. Pathos makes an appeal to the emotions. And logos appeals to reason or logic. This fascinating system of classification, first invented by Aristotle, remains valid even today. Let's explore how this system can be applied to a modern magazine advertisement.
Advertisements are one of many things that Americans cannot get away from. Every American sees an average of 3,000 advertisements a day; whether it’s on the television, radio, while surfing the internet, or while driving around town. Advertisements try to get consumers to buy their products by getting their attention. Most advertisements don’t have anything to do with the product itself. Every company has a different way of getting the public’s attention, but every advertisement has the same goal - to sell the product. Every advertisement tries to appeal to the audience by using ethos, pathos, and logos, while also focusing on who their audience is and the purpose of the ad. An example of this is a Charmin commercial where there is a bear who gets excited when he gets to use the toilet paper because it is so soft.
The images which are used for advertisements, newspapers, or magazines usually include the significant purposes and ideas. Then, in many cases, they are described by ethos, pathos, and logos which are used frequently to catch viewers’ attentions. Even if the ads do not have concrete strategies and clear opinions, those ads may not be able to persuade the viewers. In other words, the excellent ads could use one of three persuasions. The following advertisement is the good example of embedded pathos in the advertisement.
This campaign may have a reverse effect on these types of women. By hearing the responses from the women, they may feel that being confident is not something that is considered normal. This would be a constraint that this campaign and specific short-film could give. Another constraint would be men. Although Dove is a company that aims towards women, there are men that struggle with the same self-esteem problems that could also benefit from this same mission. By letting know that not only women, but also humans as a whole, should believe they are beautiful could change the impact of the message. The last thing that could pose a problem is the fact that the reveal, one picture is supposed to represent unattractiveness and one is representing beauty. You hear comments from the women mentioning crow’s feet or circles under their eyes weren’t in the second picture. So do these tiny things change the definition of beauty? Is the youthful looking picture supposed to be the only way to achieve this? In today’s society, we are taught that beauty is within certain constraints and this is something that is around us every day. Beauty and perfection surrounds us in so many aspects of life on a daily basis and this is what is making women so self-conscious. Society is measuring peoples worth by their outside appearance instead if their inner thoughts
The commercial poured out a lot of emotions showing empathy, compassion and happiness through the women describing the way they look and someone else’s viewpoint on the person’s appearance. When the piano play pianissimo in the background it sets the tone of the atmosphere very mellow, serene and sympathetic. As you watch the advertisement seeing multiple women gaze at their sketches realizing the difference between a negative input and a positive output melts your heart and makes you smile to appreciate on the way you look. Dove revealed a caring side of them showing that they care a lot about their customers, also advertising to their viewers they are a “people person company”.
This technique is commonly broken into three categories: pathos, ethos, and logos. The multi-billion-dollar company, Nike, is one of many companies that utilizes these techniques to not only sell their products, but present their values and morals as an athletic company. Nike’s, “If you let me play,” ad is a perfect example of a print advertisement that encompasses all three persuasion techniques. The ad has emotional appeal, using pathos to evoke feelings of strength and positivity in young girls and their parents urging them to embrace sports and physical activities. Ethos is a fairly simple persuasive technique for Nike to utilize due to their overwhelming success and popularity. With such a large company, it is easy to establish unspoken credibility. In order to establish further credibility, there are statistics and claims based on logical reasoning that exemplify an advertisement using logos to help the target audience understand exactly what Nike is striving to communicate. Through capitalizing on these persuasive techniques, Nike not only successfully promoted their female athletic apparel, but also educated the public on the importance of empowering young girls and encouraging them to participate in sports and physical activities for the overall betterment of their lives mentally, physically, and
In society, it is not uncommon to find females who lack confidence in the their beauty, to be honest I sometimes do not feel beautiful. When I look to role models in my life I only see my mother, growing I never had a celebrity or famous figures that I could look up to. Until recently when Lupita Nyong’o made her debut there was not a celebrity I could really relate to. My mother always tried to impart confidence into me growing up, however to this day I continue to struggle with this issue. I have read many books and online blogs on loving yourself, however on certain days I do not feel my best. Dove is reaching out to females like me who encounter this everyday struggle, who will one day hopefully have daughters who also might suffer from lack self-confidence. I have witnessed first hand the effects of not feeling beautiful enough. Since kindergarten, I have seen young girls striving for attention from others, such as men, just in other to feel good enough. I have seen girls bully other young girls because they didn't feel good enough and wanted to put others down. This situation was extremely heartbreaking, the effects can lead to eating disorders, plastic surgery, self harm, and depression. In this situation women look to fulfill this dissatisfaction by looking for fulfillment in other areas which can lead to an even darker road. When women lack self confidence in their beauty it can lead to lack of self respect and even self love. Dove really wants to empower young girls so that they can in turn empower other young girls to find validation in themselves one day. From the beginning of time women have been looked down upon starting with Adam and Eve. However, today we actually have the opportunity to elect a female president and if that is not empowering enough I’m not sure what is. Although many may say that Dove created this campaign
Dove started the campaign “ Real Beauty” in 2004 . The campaign’s objective was to change the women’s perception for their definition of beauty. The Dove Real beauty campaign is a marketing campaign established in order to widen the definition of beauty as well as provoke discussion on what our society deems beautiful.” The campaign consists of 4 stages of advertising. The first phase placed initial advertisements that focus on featuring women of all ethnic groups and shapes . The second phase uses commercial advertising on television it targets young women . The third phase uses print advertisement that targets older women on the 50+ age range. The last, phase of the campaign is a video that has been trending on social media across the world. In 2004, Dove employed researchers to conduct a survey in order to study how much women are satisfied with their own beauty . As a result 2% of women that where interviewed in the 10 countries chose the word beautiful to describe themselves, and very few chose the word gorgeous and sexy ” (Ercoff,2010). The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty was created soon after with the hope of raising that 2%statistic.
For my semiotic analysis I chose to talk about a commercial for ‘Be delicious’ from Donna Karan New York to demonstrate how advertising generates its meanings, construct the image and behaviors ideology in order to attract customers.
“The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty”is a worldwide digital marketing campaign that was launched by Unilever in the year 2004. It includes advertisements, video, workshops, sleepover events and the publication of a book and the production of a play. The aim of the campaign is to celebrate the natural physical variation embodied by all women and inspire them to have the confidence to be comfortable with themselves.Under the campaign, Unilever launched a video with the tag “Real beauty sketches”. "Real Beauty Sketches" aims to underline the stark contrast between how women view themselves and what others see.
...r young, impressionable mind will have been exposed to more than 77,000 advertisements, according to an international study. Last week, it confirmed the link between the images of female perfection that dominate the media and increasing cases of low self-esteem among young women..” (Shields,2007). The propaganda techniques such as liking, sex appeal, and celebrity endorsements are used in advertisements constantly. Commercials on television, billboards, magazines, and various other advertisement types are everywhere you look in America, and sadly it has become very important for women of all ages to try to be perfect. We come into contact with these messages every day, and the beauty industry is getting bigger and bigger. Propaganda has molded our worldly perception of beauty and will only continue to hurt us and gain from our lack of self-esteem if we allow it to.
The media has increasingly portrayed unrealistic views of women in the media. Whether it be on billboards or in commercials, it is almost always the same image; a beautiful woman with an amazing body and no visible flaws. In 2004, Dove challenged those advertisements and came up with the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. It is a world-wide marketing campaign with the goal of banishing the conventional standard of beauty, and defining what ‘real beauty’ is. Despite having good intentions, I believe Dove’s real purpose is to simply broaden the definition of real beauty while making a profit.
“Adolescent girl and Body image.” National Association of Social Worker. National Association of Social Worker Web. 18 Nov 2013
Surveys showed women in general lacked confidence in their appearance and would not describe themselves as beautiful or attractive. For example, Exhibit 4, "The Real Truth About Real Beauty: A Global Report” shows that 44% of women in the United States in 2004 “do not feel comfortable describing [themselves] as beautiful”. Marketing the idea that women in their natural forms are indeed beautiful and should be accepted by society was the premise of the whole campaign. This idea was a effective because it identified the consumer’s feeling and attitudes towards beauty and responded to it. Instead of having to market different products, Dove’s motion to challenge society’s views on what defines beauty was indeed a successful maneuver to bring millions of consumers to identify more closely with the brand. It also was a marketing campaign that had a very different message from other beauty products at the time, which made Dove stand
Persuasion is a part of our everyday life. Whether we are persuading our mother, using persuasion through speech, or through advertisements, we are using rhetoric strategies to get the response we desire. With the help of minor details in many advertisements, Ethos, Logos, and Pathos are a way of persuading the audience to buy or think a certain way. A Colgate toothbrush commercial used Logos, Pathos and Ethos to spread the word that they have the best toothbrush of all, in which they target everyone who has teeth. Through the use of advertisements, Colgate has convinced the world that they have the best toothbrushes, they’re even recommended by dentists.