Visual Analysis

Big companies and organizations are using many different methods of advertising to get people to listen to what they are saying, selling, and doing. The most common form of advertisement currently is pictures and texts. In this image, the creator is using that method to persuade the audience with ethos and pathos to quit smoking.

In this image, the predominant focus is the whole image. The black and white coloring background and the bright colors of the crayons inside a Marlboro box is the main focal point of this advertisement. However, the text in this image plays an important part also. The image and text complement each other because they help explain each other. The visual adds information that the text does not explain. For example, the text says “Do you want them to take after everything you do?” the visual helps explain who “them” is with the bright color crayons. Which in this case is a symbol of children. The visual also explains that the children will or would be “taking after” the adult’s habit of smoking cigarettes. If the picture were to be removed the text the image would not make sense. The audience will be confused who the audience would be and who is taking action. So when you add both of them together the subject and verb are explained.

Some rhetorical appeals that the creator of this advertisement used is pathos ethos. For example, instead of listing the facts of how bad smoking is to a person, the creator brought n the audience of children. This causes an emotional reaction to the parents. They start to imagine their children grow up to be a smoker because they see their parents doing it. This can be taken even further when the parents start to imagine all the harmful chemicals and effects that cigarettes will have on their children when they start following their footsteps of smoking. The creator also uses a hint of ethos, because everyone knows that it’s not ethical to influence children to smoke. Meaning that adults should be ashamed when seeing this advertisement, after realizing that children out there are being influenced by them.

The creator purposely made the text relay on the image and text, also the use of ethos and pathos. These methods were really persuasive because it played with the feeling of the targeted audience and also make them second think of what they are actually doing by smoking. Also made the targeted audience which is adults think about what will happen if their children get influenced by them. In conclusion, the creator used text, visuals, ethos, and pathos to persuade the audience to quit smoking.