Free Rhetorical Analysis Eng 105 Essay Sample

Olay Cleanser Review

Olay’s Elements of Persuasion
Olay is known in the beauty industry for the freshness of their products, and with their new Olay Pore Minimizing Scrub Ad, they are proving they know what they are doing in the marketing world too. The overall message that they are trying to come across to the audience works due to an even amount of logos, pathos, and ethos used. In this campaign, Olay is trying to convince the audience, predominantly women, that not only will their product remove one’s make up but also that it will minimize their pores. When an individual first views this ad, one may only see the artistic appeal, but to see the logos and ethos appeal one must read and not only view.

Appealing to Emotion Through Theme and Visualization

The way an advertisement works is by first catching the audience’s eye. Immediately one would see the beautiful and flawless face of Carrie Underwood, who is known to be a famous country singer, and also the complementary colors of blue and green being used that give off a relaxing and refreshing look. Using a celebrity like Carrie Underwood, helps the audience feel more intrigued to use the product, especially when they see how her skin is radiating off the magazine. Olay wants women to feel that using their products help their face also become as bright as Carries. The colors help with how the audience feels. Light blues and greens are colors primarily used in spas because of the rejuvenating feeling they give people. The reason why Olay would use these colors is to give the advertisement a softer feel. Colors like red and black are too bold for skin care. Olay also uses a phrase in their paragraph about how the product works saying “Still washing your face with a beauty bar? Don’t worry you’re not the only one”. Olay uses this phrase to give reassurance to woman and know that they are not alone. Along with these techniques, there is one last pathos appeal, which is hidden underneath the advertisement, the theme.
Throughout this ad, there are musical notes surrounding Carrie Underwood as she smiles beautifully. From her quote she says, “Olay cleanser changed [her] tune beautifully”. Olay is relating her tune back to her skin, by saying that her tune was changed due to the confidence clean, healthy skin gave her. Olay may also be emphasizing that the reason Carrie sings so well, is due to Olay cleanser. This is reinforcing to the audience to buy the product because you will be able to sing just as beautiful as Carrie.

Appealing to Logic Through Product Detail

Logically, this advertisement is what makes the product seem reasonable and realistic to use. Olay claims that it “removes 2x more dirt and make up than the leading moisturizing bar”. Now, even though some companies say this without anything to back it up, they have a quote from Carrie Underwood claiming that now that she uses the Olay cleanser it has “changed [her] tune beautifully” after switching from using a bar. Then, they have a small paragraph reinforcing what the product does, cleanse and exfoliate, so that the appearance of pores is minimized. This is giving us facts and details of the actual product, making a customer, more intrigued buy the product. However, if the customers/audience do not know about the company the rhetorical appeal of ethos comes in as a role, where they have to determine if this company is a reliable source.

Providing Credibility Through Celebrity and Supporting Sources

No matter how much reasoning and physical appeal that print ad may give off, if the audience does not trust that it is coming from a credible source, they will not want or be intrigued to buy it. Even though this could also be an appeal to pathos, using a celebrity, like Carrie Underwood, gives the company some credibility. Usually, a celebrity does not want their name or face associated with a company that lies and cheats. Using a woman like Carrie makes an audience think that if she is willing to get involved in this campaign, she must believe in it. Also, Olay gives a website that woman could go to called skincarefacts.com, if they wanted to learn more information on different products and how they work. This allows for customers to learn more about Olay products and see what they are all about. Having a website to reinforce that they have done their research proves that Olay does know a lot about skin and that they are a credible source.

The Successful Use of Balanced Persuasive Elements

After looking over the Olay print ad and reading between the lines, Olay has a balance of logos, ethos, and pathos throughout the ad and elsewhere, that helps a woman want to buy the product and see if it does work by cleansing and minimizing pores. Olay uses different techniques, like a theme, colors, and word choice, to help the consumer buy their products.