Rhetoric

Prompt: Give some examples of rhetoric you see on a daily basis. Try to consider what you see on your way to class.

The amount of rhetoric we see from day to day is much more than any of us would have ever realized. As soon as we wake up, we're being bombarded with ads and signs and arguments for every possible point of view and group out there. We see signs for the intramural sports, for special meetings where they persuade you with free giveaways, TV ads trying to get you to buy the latest product, ads on Facebook trying to get you to join christianmingle.com. You'll see bumper stickers advertising a certain surfing company, billboards promoting a certain fast food chain that's "Right At The Next Exit!" or a flyer hanging up in your hall showing how much fun it is to attend the school football games and that you should go as well. It's ridiculous. Granted, we aren't persuaded by every single piece of rhetoric we see, but others are, and that proves that the ad has done it's job. The small portion of rhetoric that does persuade us, however, has to be something we personally identify with, enjoy, or are interested in. Otherwise, we simply ignore the argument they're trying to present to us. This is where you have to analyze the audience that the ad is aiming at. If a guy walks up and sees a poster talking about joining a sorority, he's not going to pay much attention. He's not going to be able to join that sorority so there's no point in listening to their argument. However, if an entering, female freshman who has always wanted to rush sees the exact same poster, she's probably going to give it more attention that others would. So, we see non-stop rhetoric throughout our daily lives, but that doesn't mean that every single bit of it has an effect on our behaviors and beliefs.