Monday, September 1, 2008

Use of Pathos in Persuasion

I came upon an advertisement which goes like this...

Pets for adoption
SPCA hotline: 62875355

DahliaWhat a nice name! Dahlia is quiet, purrs a lot and a wholesome of goodness for any animal-loving family!Gender: FemaleBreed: LocalColour: Tabby/WhiteAge: 3.5 months

MerlinTiny Merlin has a very big heart for anybody. Just talk to him and he’ll brighten up your gloomiest days! Gender: MaleBreed: LocalColour: Black/WhiteAge: 3 months

BabyBaby is a really sweet feline! We love her, we really do! The best thing we can do for her is to find her a beautiful and loving home who’ll stand by her for life!Gender: FemaleBreed: PersianColour: Blue/WhiteAge: 4 years


CometComet’s sweet and gentle personality is rare like the stars!Gender: FemaleBreed: LocalColour: Tabby/WhiteAge: 2 years

taken from 88DB Service Portal (updated every Friday of the week)
source:
http://sg.88db.com/sg/HTML/en-us/indexmkt/spca/spca1.htm

Linking this post to the concept 'persuasion appeals Logos, Pathos and Ethos work together to achieve its objectives' , this shows the use of Pathos used in Persuasion.
The use of pathos helps SPCA in their goal, which is to help the animals find responsible owners
online communication works...

4 comments:

yijing said...

HI there!

im a pet lover myself, and have a rabbit at home.

agreed that the advertisers make use of emotions to move its readers. not to mention, those cute pictures of the animals that are up for adoption is also another added point.

Emil said...

Yup this type of advertisement clearly uses pathos. Well, it certainly does play on your emotions!
Unfortunately, this kind of advert will only encourage those who are already interested to adopt, in my opinion. It won't help much for those who are uninterested.

Indi said...

I totally agree this ads use pathos to appeal to the audience. It would like emil said they play on ur emotions and makes you go 'awww' when you look at those pictures.

Such ads would capture the attention of animal lovers and kids alike.

Kai Siang said...

Pathos is definitely key here. But since it only utilize pathos only, it may not be that appeal to people who are not pet lovers.