The 'Above the Influence' campaign uses many different strategies in order to persuade young adults that drug use is harmful and unintelligent. A variety of elements are used in their commercials and advertisements to inform viewers of various drugs and their effects, usually marijuana. Some of the commercials are meant to be humorous and comically appealing, but others are meant to be more serious and informative. The commercial that I chose shows six scenes with six different teenagers who have all done something dumb because of smoking weed. It is a very amusing commercial but also has a valid meaning portraying the dangers of marijuana. Although it is meant to make people laugh, the points that they make through the characters are pretty realistic. The ‘Above the Influence’ commercial's purpose is to inform viewers of the dangers of using drugs, and that it affects not only themselves but also the people who are around them. The commercial implies in a humorous way that there are no benefits that will come from using drugs.
The commercial that I chose to analyze uses two of the three rhetorical appeals described in our textbook: pathos and ethos. Pathos is also known as “the pathetic appeal” and generally refers to an appeal to the viewer’s emotions. It is meant to put the viewer in a certain mood or frame of mind and authors use this appeal to attempt to establish a connection with the audience through their emotions. In this particular ‘Above the Influence’ commercial, comedy is used as emotional appeal. Each person tells something dumb that they have done when they smoked weed, and they are acting very excited about the things that happened which makes it comical. For example, one of the girls is standing next to her refrigerator pointing at her report card posted on the fridge and says, “I got straight D’s!” as if she is happy about it. This example shows that she is getting poor grades as a result of her smoking weed but she doesn’t realize that there is anything wrong with it and actually seems excited about it, which is why she posted her D report card on the refrigerator. All six of the people in the commercial have something to tell that they did and even though it is funny, it is meant to convey a serious message as well.
Along with pathos, ethos is also used in this commercial. Ethos in the rhetorical sense has a slightly different meaning than ethos in other meanings. Ethos works as a rhetorical strategy by establishing credibility of the writer or speaker. There are many factors that contribute to the ethos of an author and they are used each time an essay is written or an argument is constructed. These factors are established by the power to persuade depending on credibility, your word choice, your tone, and your choice of examples, the quality of your research, your grammar, and your punctuation. I believe that the ‘Above the Influence’ commercial uses the ethos appeal because it is a credible campaign and well known throughout our country. At the end of the commercial, the official web address is shown as if to encourage viewers to visit their site and learn more information about the campaign. ‘Above the Influence’ is a very credible and distinguished campaign, which aids in the ability to persuade the viewers of their commercials and advertisements. Ethos can be a very powerful tool for establishing trust and therefore assisting the persuasiveness of an argument.
As far as rhetoric elements are concerned, pathos and ethos are not the only two aspects that are portrayed in this commercial. Two rhetorical strategies of argumentation are also applied: example (also known as illustration) and cause and effect. The commercial uses illustration by showing examples of the impact that weed has on a person’s life in different ways. It is trying to convey the message that smoking weed can greatly alter your way of thinking and does not end up well. Even though the outcomes seem humorous, this commercial does a great job of illustrating the impact on a person’s life as a result of using weed.
The rhetorical strategy of cause and effect is similar to example/illustration. The teens are telling the viewers what happened to them, which is explaining the effect. What caused them to do these ridiculous things is the cause part, which is weed. The entire commercial focuses on the effects until the very end when the question appears, asking “What has weed done for you lately?” This is somewhat of a sarcastic way of ending the commercial and making you think about the different effects of using weed. The author of the commercial was most likely attempting to use the cause and effect strategy, as well as example or illustration, to demonstrate what will happen after using drugs in order to persuade viewers, especially teens, to stay away from drugs and hopefully never start taking them.
There are five canons of rhetoric that are the principles by which all writing, speaking, and/or visual arguments operate: invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery. Each canon is a major step in the process of constructing a persuasive argument. Inventing is merely generating ideas, but is obviously an important part in the process. Arrangement is ordering and laying out ideas effectively. This canon is vital because the way in which you present the information will shape the viewer’s response to the ideas. The arrangement gives the argument structure and helps to create a very well developed and high-quality argument. The style concerns choosing the appropriate expression for the ideas used in the argument. It is important that the style, also sometimes known as the voice, is utilized in the best way possible in order to create a successful argument. Memory is retaining invented ideas, recalling additional supporting ideas, and facilitating memory in the audience. Memory is a somewhat important step in the process, but is not crucial to the final stage of the argument. Last but not least, delivery is presenting or performing ideas with the aim of persuading your audience towards whatever your point of view is.
As far as my commercial is concerned, the five rhetorical canons are easily applied. Invention goes along with the entire campaign of ‘Above the Influence’ because all of their commercials and ads portray the same message. Arrangement is a little different for each one though. In my commercial, the message was arranged in a comical way so that it would grab the attention of viewers. Also, it was constantly changing characters so that the viewer would not get bored of listening to the same person speak throughout the entire commercial. The style deals with the tone of the advertisement, which appeals to the different emotions of the viewers. As I’ve said before, the tone of the commercial is meant to be comical. Memory is not apparent in the commercial because it is not plain to see that the author went over the different elements of the commercial during this step, but the success of the campaign implies that the author(s) are very good at what they do. I believe that the delivery is done extremely well and is quite effective as far as the message being conveyed is concerned. The advertisement is funny, as well as informative, and it is clear to understand what knowledge the viewers are intended to gain.
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