Rhetorical Analysis of an Advertisement

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Rhetorical analysis of ad
Introduction
The primary purpose of advertising is to persuade the target audience into purchasing a specific product, or better still adopt a particular way of thinking. Advertisers are required to do that effectively and responsibly, and hence it should be done in an ethical and responsible manner. A well-rounded piece of advertising can shift the target audience toward purchasing a particular product. The paper analyses the effective elements used to persuade the target audience namely connotation, signifier and signified elements, photographic conventions, and intertextuality in the Sanzer Ad. While advertising is an important tool for grabbing the audience’s attention, while shifting their way of thinking, its success largely depends on the propaganda and rhetoric that underlies it.
Overview of the Ad
The Ad is titled, ‘what you really touch’ created by Chuo Senko advertising company for Sanzer hand sanitizer gel. The primary goal/purpose of the ad is to convince the audience of the effectiveness of the product as an antibacterial gel. The primary audience targeted is anybody using, touching, or accessing public gadgets such as public payphones
Ad’s objective description
The Ad’s primary objective is to attract and appeal to the target audience comprising of public facility users. The Ad depicts a public payphone, a very common public gadget that everyone uses, and then shows dirty fingers in the position of the number keys. The Ad uses visual elements to create an emotional feeling of disgust (Bargh 28).The visual image created is that to dial each number, a person has to touch each of the dirty fingers. Nobody will do that, and if they’ll do, the most logical thing would be to sanitize their hands, and hence the connection to Sanzer hand gel is made.
The propaganda in the Sanzer ad is that the hand gel is a powerful antibacterial gel that will protect people touching public surfaces from bacterial infection. The rhetoric successfully captures the audience’s emotions and attention as it shows fingers protruding from a dirty surface. Besides, it uses enthymeme logic to present the rhetoric in a rather ethical and emotional appeal through effective use of visuals that draw the audience to the focal point of the ad image (Bergkvist & Rossiter 92).
Analyses of Conceptual Elements
The Ad uses connotation to achieve emotional appeal and to create values and ass...