Analyzing Adidas' Website: Ethos, Logos, and Pathos in Action - Prof. Siobhan T. Watson, Study notes of English Language

Download Analyzing Adidas' Website: Ethos, Logos, and Pathos in Action - Prof. Siobhan T. Watson and more Study notes English Language in PDF only on Docsity! Brett Bishop ENG 111 Inquiry # 2 Miss Watson 27 September 2010 Writer’s Letter Overall, I found this essay much easier to write than Inquiry #1, for the simple fact that I honestly did not know what to write about for Inquiry #1. I have not had many experiences with different “Englishes”, but since, just like every other teen or young adult, I am addicted to Facebook and the internet, I have seen plenty of websites in my time. I chose to write about Adidas, as I’ve played many sports throughout my life and when given the option, I’ve typically chosen to purchase equipment and apparel made by Adidas rather than other companies. I have never put much thought into why I do this, and so I decided to analyze their website and to see if it was their usage of pathos, logos, and ethos that has persuaded me all of these years. I decided to write my essay towards athletes, as they would be the group most frequenting this website, and thus most interested in my essay. One way in which I wrote towards athletes was by only naming the famous athletes featured on Adidas’ webpage, and not going into great detail of their accomplishments, as anyone interested in athletics knows what these individuals have accomplished. During the peer review, the only suggestion I really received was to “better state my claim”. I chose to not follow this idea as it seemed redundant to me. The claim with everyone’s essays is that the website being analyzed is trying to sell their product to a customer by using the three rhetorical elements. What else needs to be said? But the suggestions from you, Miss Watson, to include more description of the three elements and to also describe how the athletes appealed to ethos, I implemented. I implemented these changes, because I felt as though they contributed more substance to my essay and also would help to clear up any confusion for a reader not as familiar with the elements of ethos, pathos, and logos. Overall, I feel that I deserve a low A or an extremely high B on this paper. Although I know it is not perfect and more could possibly be improved on it, I am very happy with how I am turning it in. I feel I have followed all the criteria to the best of my ability, as I have addressed the prompt, written a well thought out and developed thesis, supported it with evidence of the three elements, and done it all in an organized fashion. Nowadays, athletes have an immense decision to make before they ever set foot on the court, mat, or field to display their athletic prowess, they must first decide which brand they will wear and represent. Nike, Adidas, Puma, or Asics, among many other lesser name brands, present the athletes of today with a great decision to make. One helpful factor in this decision can be referencing a brand’s webpage to compare and contrast possible options. Therefore, it is imperative for these brands to make their page appeal to the widest variety of consumers possible by implementing the three main types of rhetoric: ethos, logos, and pathos. The rhetorical element of ethos simply tries to establish the credibility for an advertisement or website usually through statements or by featuring well-known and trustworthy people such as celebrities. Logos appeals to one’s logic through facts and studies, while pathos, the most commonly used and possibly effective method, appeals to emotions through pictures, statements, or music. Adidas implements all three elements very well, as they appeal to a buyer’s emotions as well as their logic, by providing vivid imagery of their merchandise as well as well-known athletes to market them, statements of promised improved performance, and results of “so-called” scientific studies. Once one arrives at the Adidas homepage, they are bombarded with twenty colorful pictures set to a whitish-grey background, making them stand out even more. The consumer has the option to scroll over and expand each and every one of these pictures, each one revealing a different aspect of Adidas’ website. With so many options it may be hard to choose which links to expand first, so why not go with the largest and most colorful one located in the top left corner of the screen. Once expanded, this link proves to be an advertisement for their new “MEGA” brand of shoe. The advertisement uses intense language and colors to appeal to the consumer’s pathos. Adjectives and statements like “…never skimping on style”, “…mouthwatering moment in footwear”, and “the biggest, baddest, freshest things we got” certainly make the consumer want to reach for their credit cards and buy immediately before even giving a glance at the other nineteen links on the homepage, but for the sake of this essay’s word count let’s examine some of the other links as well. The next largest picture is paired directly opposite of the previous, located in the bottom right corner. Once expanded, this advertisement boasts that the Adidas store offers over 4,200 shoes, as well as apparel, bags, watches, and socks. This link is the first clear attempt to establish some sort of ethos, or credibility, with the consumer, as the statement of having over four thousand shoes certainly makes one think the brand is doing something right. Not many more attempts at ethos are found on the homepage, but there is plenty more pathos to go around. Adidas, first and foremost, has geared its website towards athletes of all sports, as evident by the five pictures of well-known professional athletes as well as the five pictures of non-professional athletes and silhouettes of a football and a basketball player. The well-known athletes include former Heisman winner and starting running back for the New Orleans Saints, Reggie Bush, Works Cited Welcome to Adidas. Adidas, 2010. Web. 14 September 2010.