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3.2 Visual rhetoric in practice
The traditional study of rhetoric, as the video in this section describes, is the study of communication in the art of persuasion. The term visual rhetoric suggests that there is kinship with traditional oral rhetoric and written rhetoric, but in a different (visual) form.For example, in the print ad below for Pinnacle Bank, the visual element has nothing to do with banking, but has everything to do with persuading the viewer that the bank has ethos, or credibility, with respect to the individuals or businesses they are appealing to. To the audience, the selection of a farm image is intended to recognize the audience’s perspective, interests, traditions, and livelihood so that it promotes feelings of trust, connection, and mutual understanding, even though the occupations of banker and farmer couldn’t be more different.
In the example below, we see an effort to appeal to both emotion (pathos) and logic (logos) in the famous “Morning in America” TV ad from the 1984 presidential election. The emotional elements are triggered through the use of the wedding scene and the flag raising scene. The logical element, expressed in the narrator’s voiceover, is presented in the form of economic statistics and reinforced by a question that asks why we would want to return to the conditions that preceded president Reagan’s first term in office.
Below is a “making of the TV ad” feature (4:00) created by RetroReport.org that describes the communication strategy behind the making of the “Morning in America” TV ad. This ad is recognized as one of the most effective political ads in American history.Pay close attention at about 2:10 into the video as the producer describes the wedding scene as a rhetorical device and how the perception of the ad was received by the public, even though the ad contained no policy or political stances. As you can see, visual media can have a powerful effect on how a message is received.
