From a definition perspective, Aristotelian rhetoric constitutes the ability to convince a given audience to accept what is presented to them by standing up as being highly credible, appealing to their emotions and being logically clear by providing linking reasons why a presentation stands the way it was presented. In other words, Aristotle considered persuasion from the angle of speech, whereby speakers had to understand how important they were before they presented a speech and, thus, had to develop strong credibility with the audience. In addition, they had to understand what the people wanted in line with their presentation by learning the values and virtues of the people so that they could make presentations that appealed to their emotions.
The above second perspective was more important because it related directly with the people in the audience, created less resistance to messages, and perhaps eventually could influence the people in the audience to accept and follow that which the speaker had just presented to them. Such an achievement would be difficult to come by if the speaker could not articulate their messages correctly so that what they said previously and what they are saying now, and whatever they will conclude with will follow some line of correct reasoning that appeals to logic so that everyone simply accepts the connections. The following paper analyses two adverts, which promote cigarette smoking by exploring how the use of characters in them, including the lady smoking, and Santa, build up strong pathos backgrounds, while the use of disease and Christmas enjoyment arousing acceptance of ethos, and the use lack of advancement being the right logos of the times in which these advertisements were created, thereby, managing to convince people to smoke.
Advertisement 1: St. Nick made in 1920
The second Advertisement chosen for this paper is that of St. Nick, which was created in 1920, to promote Murad Cigarettes by convincing customers and potential buyers that these are the best cigars that one could have if they wanted to enjoy the moment. The Advertisement uses Santa as the main feature, pictured sited on the ground with his back on the wall and smoking while relaxed with legs stepping on the ground, taking in a puff of Murad cigarette smoke and then talking to the audience (CBS para 10). The message from Santa to the audience comes in the form of a rhetorical question, which is intended to stir their imagination into answering the question of what more enjoyable they could have a part from the Murad cigar.
Aristotle’s definition of ethos considers the degree of magnitude of importance that an argument holds concerning the time and person used to present the argument. Using the character of Santa, St Nick’s advert manages to convince the reader that Santa cannot be wrong to give people gifts or advice people what to have for Christmas. Therefore, using the pathos of wide or universal appeal, the advert manages to raise the degree of credibility of Santa to a larger target market audience to the extent that anyone reading the advert will automatically recognize Santa. Therefore, the use of Santa’s pathos leads to an evoking of audience ethos, which includes emotions of feeling good and subsequent happiness.
Generally, Santa is associated known to be gifting people Christmas presents, and the mere sight of Santa is synonymous with good things meant to celebrate this festive time. Therefore, when the audience viewing the advert gets to recognize Santa, the emotional processing runs good emotional pulses that arouse excitement and the longing to get to have whatever Santa has brought to the people. The association of Christmas celebrations with smoking, especially when the advert states that there is nothing better to have for that time except the Murad cigarette, heightens the audience’s excitement to try to acquire the cigar and perhaps achieve the wish of Santa advising people to look for the perfect Christmas gift of the Murad cigarette. The universality of belongingness and the ability to trust Santa all combine to increase the magnitude of importance that is used as a tool to convince or persuade the user. According to Aristotle ( Book 1 61), the magnitude of importance is classified as being either small or greater in ethos settings and thus, the universal wish of Santa and the need to please Santa by many people around the world heighten the greatness of the ethos used to convince people to smoke.
To make it more appealing, the designers of the Advertisement capitalize on or use a rhetorical question that seeks to invoke an internal processing mechanism to arouse running emotions that search for what could be more enjoyable than the Murad cigar. While the thought processes of the audience or viewer of the Advertisement will not be revealed to answer the question, it emerges that by the time the audience is through with this internal scanning, they will end up getting convinced that the Murad Cigar is indeed the most enjoyable. They will then get to smoke it, to get to enjoy the feeling of it. The above approach is quite appealing to the ethos of joy naturally, as celebrations and enjoyment go hand in hand, and the most appealing emotions naturally are those that promise or give joy and happiness. At the same time, while promises of relieving pain also constitute ethos of greater magnitude, the latter does not reach the level of the promise of joy unless the pain is quite excruciating, which is not part of the context of the Advertisement above.
Advertisement 2: Good for what ails you made in 1881
The main feature of this Advertisement is the use of a very beautiful woman, who was adorably the iconic model figure at the contextual time, to pass the message of cigarette healing to a target audience population of probably mostly young people and men who love beautiful women that cigarettes heal respiratory diseases. The young woman is pictured smoking and apparently seems to be urging the audience that smoking is the cure for ailments such as bronchitis, shortness of breath, asthma and influenza. The application of the Advertisement in relation to ethos, pathos and logos is in line with the definitions previously provided above.
The Advertisement combines ethos, pathos and logos using a different angle from the normal order that would apply currently. The pathos of the woman character in the advert is apparently strong because women at the time were considered to be telling the truth in everything and, thus, were to be trusted in whatever they said. Secondly, the credibility of the woman increases multiple folds when she is portrayed as being beautiful, and thus, the woman character fits all these features. The audience gets to connect to the image directly, and one feels like the woman character is talking to him or her in the same way.
While the ethos aroused in the user constitutes relief from pain and getting to retain the good feeling, the advert is thus based on the ethos of feeling good, loving the feeling and hating that which is contrary to it or causing harm and discomfort, such as the respiratory diseases listed therein. The ethos of the time was the taking in pride of beauty and nature, which combine perfectly in the Advertisement, with the woman representing beauty, while smoking and the resultant relieving of pain is directly at feeling good. These two were perhaps some of the most widely influential ethos of the time and would influence larger audiences with ease by appealing to the emotions of feeling good. Thus, the Advertisement capitalizes on appealing to instinct and nature rather than the scientific reality that the use of cigars would not make life better but worsen it.
Using the concept of logos, the creators of the advert used the impression of nature rather than using the reality of the time by trying to convince smoking audiences that doing so would result in making their lives better, even though it was not medically possible. According to Book 2 (150), youthful people tend to live on their natural instincts than they live by calculating the reality of the moment. In application to the audience that is targeted by the advert, apparently, the young are living more on the sensational feeling of the moment of feeling good than living up to the realization that smoking does not actually lead to healing. Instead, smoking may worsen the health condition of those with respiratory problems such as influenza, bronchitis and asthma, among others. These tactics of combining the logos of treatment as the reason for smoking, together with the appeal to natural instinct as well as capitalizing on love for feeling good and hatred for bad, could manage to make people smoke the Wilcox cigars.
Conclusion
The two advertisements use different features to convince audiences to smoke cigars contained in the ads. In the Murad cigar advertisement, the use of Santa is widely appealing and, thus, manages to gather sufficient pathos to convince smokers while focusing on the best thing to have than cigarette smoking seems to achieve the appealing ethos and logos of wanting to smoke. The Wilcox Cigars advertisement chooses to apply a beautiful woman as the pathos symbol, who focuses on preferring love to hatred for that which makes you feel good versus suffering from diseases and, eventually, the logos of healing bad feelings of disease as the eventual driving reason to smoke.
Works Cited
Morgan, David. Outrageous vintage cigarette ads, CBS News, November 26, 2022, https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/outrageous-vintage-cigarette-ads/
Book 2, Chapter 12, Aristotle’s ethos
Book 1, Chapter 6, The Good.
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