When you log onto a website such as Yahoo! or turn on your television, you are bombarded with ads and commercials. All of these are carefully designed to grab your attention by using bright colors, interesting punch lines, playing catchy tunes or by using the most annoying technique, popping up on your computer screen without any warning. Their power to influence you is endless. From the ones on Yahoo! that have some sort of car drive across your screen, to Victoria’s Secret models inviting you to visit their website, all those weight loss ads that make you feel awful about yourself, to the more recent presidential campaign advertisements, they all have a message to convey to you, the viewer. Think about it, when is there ever a time that you are not in contact with someone trying to persuade you to do something or buy something? Unless you live on a remote island or are put in a bubble that rejects everything, the answer is going to be never.
The question is…what is the rhetorical impact of these things? For me, some of them work. I would be lying if I said they didn’t. I’m a girl, obviously, and I love things that are supposed to make me look prettier or ‘improve’ me in some way. And for every ad that says that they can ‘do the impossible’, I may be subject to stupidly fall into their little trap! However, some do just the opposite. For all I care, all those weight loss ads can just disappear off the face of the earth. What is so wrong with the way I look now? I see them as saying “Conform to society and get super skinny!” They are trying to persuade you to try their product and by doing so, they are convincing you that you aren’t good the way you are. Guess what people? I am fine just the way I am, there is no need to change me!
Whether these advertisements, commercials, or flyers have a positive or negative effect on you, the truth is, they have an effect on you. Don’t think you are immune to the ‘persuasion disease’!
