Sunday, January 18, 2009
Thought on Chapter 1 of Unspun
The first chapter of "Unspun" was an interesting read for me. It really made me aware of all the ways in which we as consumers are bombarded with prapaganda everyday. The examples given regarding Listerine were very eye opening. The deceptions and mistruths used by the company gave a lot of insight on the thousands of half truths that occur in the media every day. I don't usually stop to queation the validity of many of the advertisments and suggestions that are filtered to me through television, newpapers and radio. The chapter made me remember that I always need to question the information that is being given to me even if it seems like it is coming from a credible source. I think it makes sense that pathos was shown to be the most effective part of an argument because much of the media plays on our emotional wants and needs. We see an ad for whitening toothpaste with happy people and beauitul, attractive smiles and think that the toothpaste will make us happy, attractive and more youthful. Most political arguements appeal to pathos as well. There were tons of examples of propaganda in the debates of this past election as canadates did all they could to indentfy with the working man. This is definitely worth thinking about before casting a vote.
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I agree with what you are saying about pathos. It is very easy for us to just see something for what we want it to be and not look past what is actually there. Your issue with the whitening toothpaste is a great example of that. Who doesn't want great shiny white teeth, but at what costs?
ReplyDeleteI agree, we need to question all propaganda. It is constantly playing off of rhetorical appeals, like pathos, which you mentioned, and also ethos and logos. However, we must question it all. How is the ad playing on our emotions? What is the credibility of the source and is it credible? Finally, what is the reasoning behind what you are seeing and what you are really hearing. Just like in Chapter Three we need to consider that what we see tends to override what we hear.
ReplyDeleteHumans are emotional beings, makes sense pathos would be the most effective technique.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your post along with a lot of the comments on it - pathos is the quickest way to motivate a person do take a specific course of action - in this case, buying an item. we're also prideful as a whole, and so we all aim to be 'the best', constantly trying to improve ourselves. any commercial or advertisement that either shows us deserving of a product or in need of the product is going to inspire us to take action.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you're saying here about being mislead. I feel like too often we believe everything the media tells it.. maybe not at first, but we get sucked in with crafy advertising schemes and such. The Listerine scandle opened my eyes as well, and I now realized how much propaganda is surrounding us.
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