Whenever people talk advertising, they throw around how you can appeal to either logos or pathos— hence the name of David Armano’s blog, Logic + Emotion. But what about praxis — the practical gain of using a product/services? After all, nothing speaks as loudly to consumers logos and pathos as their own self-interest. Take this video I found via Pronet Advertising.
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Now the message that this clip is sending is one that demonstrates that practical element of having a mobile. We’re not talking about the convenience (the logos) of it. We’re talking about completely replacing your landline with a mobile one. I don’t see so much as it is more logical to have a mobile because of x, y, and z could happen, but rather as it is much more practical to have a mobile because x,y, and z do and will continue to happen.
In the case of this ad, I see the “x, y, and z” as privacy. Basically, a mobile doesn’t just let you carry on a perfectly private conversation no matter where you go, it enables you to receive voice mail more privately. This isn’t an argument for why privacy is the logical choice, but one for how it is the practical one.
In fact, both democracy and the market system are based on making decisions and allotting resources around aggregate self-interest. After all, when it comes to convincing someone of something, as effective as an appeal to their reason or sympathies may be, nothing beats our an appeal to their own self-interest. Any thoughts?
