What could Aristotle and video game advertisements possible have to do with each other? Most of the time, very little. However, this video game advertisement blew us away and after our jaws came up off the floor, it was only Aristotle's description of pathos that we could think about. The ad feels like like having your heart stepped on whilst someone peels onions right next to you. And the ad is only for a video game.
Why and how? An advertisement is designed to persuade us to do something, and in this instance the advertiser is trying to persuade us, the viewer, to buy the game.
Aristotle of course had this whole thing figured out years ago. In Aristotle's On Rhetoric, he writes that writer / speaker of a message has three tools when persuading an audience to agree with the speaker. They can dip into:
- Ethos: Using the speaker's character / reputation / trust / experience to make the point.
- Example: Hi, I am games reviewer. I seen hundreds of games and this is one is a stand out.
- Logos: Logic, talking about the reasoning, facts and data to support the case.
- Example: You'll enjoy this game because there are hundreds of levels to complete, prizes to win, thousands of zombies, and hours of possible enjoyment, created by a team of talented people who already have awards (think movie advertisements…Starring 4 time Academy Award nominee...).
- Pathos: Emotion. Appealing to the audience's emotion, with smiles, stories, metaphors or pointing out things that are unjust. Pathos might even be appealing to fear in the audience.
This video, although animated from the game, is 100% pure emotion. Some ads are 99% pathos. This ad is 100% pure pathos, and turned up to 11.
Commonly, when there is just one of these rhetorical tools in use by a speaker, you get bored quickly. Too much about the authority of the speaker and you want them to shut up. Too much reasoning and you'll lose an audience and they won't connect emotionally.
In this example, this advertiser has risked it all on 100% pathos and it might have failed. Except, it works. And it is unbelievable. If you have kids like most of us do here, you'll be a mess. You've got to commend the absolute 100% commitment to just one form of persuasion in their messaging. There's no insurance policy here by adding one of the other two elements of persuasion.
Do not watch if you are at all squeamish - it is pretty gory. But remember, it is only animation, designed to get you to feel emotion.
Does it work?
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