Visual Analysis

Zachary Ornelas

English 1311

10/27/10

Visual Analysis

You can analyze anything you see throughout the day and you will always see Pathos, Logos, and Ethos. Every visual advertisement you see every day, from commercials to print advertisement, always have a hidden meaning as well as Pathos, Logos, and Ethos no matter what kind of advertisement, and then some advertisements have not so subtle meanings to them. The subtleness of the meaning depends on how the advertisement is presented from clarity, emphasis, arrangement, and conciseness. Arrangement is the organization of visual elements. Emphasis is making certain parts more prominent than others by changing their size, shape and color. Clarity helps the reader understand the message in the advertisement quickly. Conciseness generates designs that are appropriate to a particular situation and still go with the flow.

The clarity of this advertisement helps me understand what the company is trying to get at, as long as I know that cats don’t like water. If I didn’t know that cats didn’t like water, than the clarity would have an effect on me understanding the message. Emphasis is prominent on the cat only in this advertisement. The emphasis of the outline of the goggles emphasizes that the cat was in the water and in there for a long enough time to have the indentations of the goggles still around his eyes. Arrangement of the advertisement makes the message clear to the reader. The Company’s logo is on the bottom next to the punch line but not too big and bold to take away from the message of the picture. The advertisement is concise because of the way cats don’t like water but it is an advertisement for a dive school and the cat has goggle indentions on its face, then the punch line says we’ll make you like water.

Ethos is defined as an appeal based on the character of the speaker; an ethos-driven document relies on the reputation of the author. The credibility of the company trying to promote their diving lessons isn’t as credible here then near the oceans because we don’t live near water. Maybe the dive school is the Cadillac of all dive schools in oceanic areas, but in this area isn’t a great dive spot so we wouldn’t know. So the credibility of the dive school is not very good.

Logos is defined as an appeal based on logic or reason, documents distributed by companies or corporations are logos-driven, scholarly documents are also often logos-driven. The reason behind the cat is for the water part. Cats hate water and go crazy whenever water hits their fur. But the advertisement is saying they are really good at teaching people how to do dive that the company can teach a cat how t dive and they will love the water unlike other cats that hate the water.

Pathos is defined as an appeal based on emotion; advertisements tend to be pathos-driven. This advertisement isn’t as emotional as an advertisement about drunk driving or spousal abuse, the advertisement is supposed to be humor based. The advertisement is supposed to get you to laugh and realize that they are good at what they do. Not try to make you really think about the meaning and have you contemplate the meaning. The purpose of the advertisement isn’t supposed to make you emotional and want you to do something about it fast, it’s supposed to make you chuckle.

In conclusion, the advertisement is short and to the point and has a funny meaning to it. The advertisement has a funny but hidden meaning to it. The advertisement follows all the guidelines of Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. But always has emphasis, conciseness, clarity, and good arrangement to get the point of the advertisement across without much thinking.