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The Use Of Ethos In Shamwow Advertising

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Television advertisements have been a part of pop culture for years, these quick minute long clips gain the popularity of its viewers through humor, shock, or simply good salesmanship. The ShamWow infomercial has become one the most well known television ads in America. Its popularity came from its snappy dialogue, believable offer, and enthusiastic spokesman. But what made this infomercial so successful? Today I will be analyzing how the ineffective use of the appeals of ethos and kairos, and the highly effective appeal of logos and pathos effect the audience in the ShamWow commercial.

The ethos appeal is first appeal in the ShamWow commercial that is used ineffectively. Ethos is the appeal to credibility, an example of this would be having …show more content…

In the Shamwow commercial, a tan, skinny, salesman in a blue polo stitched with the products title, introduces himself as Vince Offers of Shamwow. Offers’ own association with the company, along with the label of on his shirt, is there to convince the audience, that because he belongs with the company, he knows the product he is selling well and thus, he can be a trustworthy source of information regarding the product. Initially this seems to be a very legitimate appeal, however it should be considered that because he works for ShamWow, he could give a biased sales pitch on the product and make it sound better than it is, making him an untrustworthy source. Another ethos appeal in the advertisement occurs when the Vince wipes his wet arm with the ShamWow towel and says “Olympic divers - they use this towel” the lack of proof or source makes this statement ineffective, just like other appeals in this commercial. During the last few minutes of the commercial, the footage cuts to real life recordings of people giving feedback about the ShamWow. A few of these comments were “I …show more content…

Kairos is basically making the most of the current moment. Like most commercials the last thirty seconds of the ShamWow commercial contain the appeal to kairos. In the commercial the salesman says “But if you call now — within the next twenty minutes, because we can’t do this all day — we’ll give you a second set [of ShamWows] absolutely free.” A statement like this is completely misleading, considering that commercials like these are randomly played by different television programs at completely different times, it is very doubtful that the ShamWow company could track who calls within the set time of twenty minutes after the commercial aired. That being said this is essentially a fake appeal of kairos. While it may still persuade a few people, those who consider the circumstances will see its

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