Assignment #2 (Rhetorical Analysis)

There are ads around the internet or even tv that are there to promote their products or cause. An example of this would be the promos of St Jude Children’s Research Hospital that are shown off. They would usually consist of  having kids in a hospital, either being hooked up by things to check them, doctors around checking them or explaining their conditions like having cancer. A  promo that was on YouTube revealed in YouTube it showed 3 kids telling their conditions. With then a narrator explaining what they do in St Jude’s Hospital and revealing the reactions of the parents like how one saw their child playing but then afterwards loses all of her hair.  The strategy that would be used here is pathos. Pathos is a rhetorical strategy that uses people’s emotions in order to convince them to side with their argument. This can be seen a lot of the time in the promo with it showing doctors checking up on the kids who all don’t have hair. The kids then explain their conditions like one of them having cancer and another having leukemia. This would affect anybody with how no one would want to see a child go through with a fatal disease. Then on top of that they have the parents there as they talk about their reactions to it like the one mentioned before. This can be heartbreaking to anyone especially other parents as they hate to see their own children sick. It’s quite interesting using this strategy because it is probably the most effective way to gain support from other people by donations. That’s because it would have children shown off there which to many are seen as people that shouldn’t be in pain. However, the promo reveals them having fatal diseases with their parents in shock. This then appeals to them, gaining St Jude the donations they would need in order to support the children in their hospitals plus allows the parents not having to pay a lot of money due to it being costly to go to the hospital.

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