“You sell on emotion, but you justify a purchase with logic.”
– Joe Sugarman
Advertising is an art form that is arguably as old as humanity itself because we’ve always tried to find ways of persuading others effectively.
In fact, the core tenants of compelling advertising and messaging can be traced back to the 4th century. During this time, Aristotle popularized the three modes of persuasion – pathos, logos, and ethos. Let’s take a look at each one briefly.
Defining logos, ethos, and pathos
Logos is an appeal to logic and relies on facts and reason to persuade the audience.
Ethos is an appeal to ethics. The technique relies on the speaker’s authority, credibility, experience, or even popularity as a means of persuading the masses.
Pathos is an emotional appeal and is used extensively in narrative art, entertainment, film, literature, and so on.
Related: How to Use Video to Trigger Customer Emotions
The case for emotional appeal, in particular, grew stronger as the years progressed thanks to the work of people like George Campbell.
The Scottish philosopher was the first to provide scientific evidence for his theory on emotional appeal and tied the psychological aspect to pathos.
In this article, we’ll focus on pathos in advertising so you can get a sense of how it can be used effectively.
Pathos in advertising—common emotional appeals
There are plenty of feelings you can choose from when it comes to evoking an emotional response from your audience. Here are some of the most common ones:
1. Fear
Ad Council – What’s Your Excuse? (1972)
Established in 1942, Ad Council is known for several memorable campaigns and PSAs. Here’s one from 1972 about wearing your seat belt.
The juxtaposition of people living their lives and then incapacitated due to their injuries makes you think.
2. Anger
Always – Like a Girl
Anger is a negative emotion and most people try to avoid evoking it, but sometimes it can inspire change and leave a positive impact.
3. Sadness
Fire Kills Campaign – On Your Child’s Life
You can’t help but feel blue after watching this PSA. Sadness can help a message stick especially if it paints a visceral image of a terrible outcome in your mind’s eye.
4. Joy and humor
Aviation Gin
Ads and content that evoke joy and trigger a fit of laughter often get shared the most online. This ad for Aviation Gin pokes fun at itself and you can’t help but laugh along.
5. Surprise
Mercedes-Benz – Magic Body Control
We wouldn’t have pictured chickens in a Mercedes commercial … but here we are.
This ad became quite popular because of how bizarre it seemed, and Jaguar released a commercial playfully mocking it, too.
The exchange between these big brands was entertaining and surprising in and of itself.
6. Love
John Lewis – Monty The Penguin
John Lewis Christmas commercials are known for their heart-melting wholesomeness. This one’s no different.
Read more: 15 Best Christmas Commercials of All Time
Which emotional appeal should you pick?
There are so many more emotions and emotional appeals you can tap into for your pathos-powered commercial. But would they all be equally as effective?
Certainly not.
To zero in on the right appeal, you must understand your audience well, and you must be familiar with their hopes, dreams, motivations, and fears.
In the next example, we’ll highlight how picking the right emotional appeal for your pathos-centric advertising campaign is crucial.
No. 10 American Legacy: Truth – Body Bag
To try to get teens to stop smoking, the American Legacy Foundation launched the Truth campaign and used resentment against big tobacco to make the message effective.
The message proved to be powerful because it appeals to the rebellious side of teenagers and essentially tells its target audience that by not smoking, they’d be making a statement and “sticking it to the man”.
It’s one of those messages that left a measurable impact. From 2000 to 2002, the campaign reduced the number of children and teen smokers by 300,000.
That’s pretty impressive, isn’t it? But despite how effective pathos in commercials can be, there are still times when relying solely on emotional appeal may not be a good idea.
Is pathos in advertising and content always the right choice?
Pathos is one of the most effective modes of persuasion. And though an emotional appeal can be impactful, it shouldn’t be singled out as the only technique for conveying a message.
There are times when ethos and logos must be summoned because they are more suitable.
A great example of where pathos in advertising fails to deliver is when it comes to selling things, such as life insurance or a burglar alarm system, that help you avoid something negative.
If you’re curious as to why this is the case, then understanding the prospect theory in the field of behavioral economics will help.
The theory explains how people make decisions when risk is involved and illustrates that most of us are loss-averse and don’t think in terms of absolute outcomes.
Translation: a short-term loss (expense) for a service or product (life insurance or a home security system) that could protect you from an unfavorable outcome in the unforeseeable future seems like too big of an immediate loss (of money).
This perspective usually only shifts when the threat becomes evident. For example, if your neighbor’s house got robbed, you’d be more willing to spend some money on that burglar alarm system.
Copywriter Joe Sugarman recognized this phenomenon and wrote this print ad. Note how the mode of persuasion used here is primarily logos.
The takeaway
The key to crafting an effective advertisement, video, or message in general, is to first understand the psychology of the audience and figure out which emotional appeal or mode of persuasion will have the right impact.
This understanding is what separates great advertisements and content from everything else that misses the mark.
If you want to create a video for your business that leaves an impression on the audience, contact our video strategists, the team would love to help you out!