https://padlet.com/ajshenefelt/2juaptighilb Aj Shenefelt - ART 3560 en-us 2018-11-13 21:18:18 UTC 2026-01-11 23:10:19 UTC hello@padlet.com ajshenefelt https://padlet.com/ajshenefelt/2juaptighilb/wish/304042476 Audience is a part of the rhetorical situation in which much thought is put into who the work is targeting, and how the piece/argument/image content can be used to reach this particular group or groups of people. 

Pathos is all about appealing to the emotions and feelings that humans have in order to get specific points across, and is what fuels creators to think about how their work can lead to the audience connecting with content on an emotional level. 

The rhetorical elements of audience and pathos are incredibly important tools that many companies utilize to make profits, and this is often done by exploiting consumers from marginalized communities in particular. By including pathos as a tactic with specific audiences, companies prey upon people from identity groups that are typically ostracized, silenced, and underrepresented in mainstream culture by creating an image of their company/products that are "inclusive" and have representation - something that becomes enticing to people who are often not seated at our country's decision making table and are generally pushed out of our media/society by dominant groups in power.

An example of this are cigarette ads that have been used by tobacco companies to target LGBT people since at least the 1990's - something that stemmed out of intentional marketing ploys such as "Project SCUM" or "SubCulture Urban Marketing", which lead several tobacco brands to market themselves towards gay men in the Castro district of San Francisco and homeless people in the Tenderloin district of SF. The images below are examples of how these companies have tried to make LGBT people feel supported and comforted by entities that are trying to sell them harmful products such as smoking and chewing tobacco under the guise of being accepting of the LGBT community. In a time where you rarely ever saw two women kissing or being romantically involved with one another in the world, seeing this ad would most certainly cause an emotional reaction - one that people from many different communities can relate to when seeing visibility and relatable people in media imagery. This type of commercialization of Pride has only increased over the years, particularly with alcohol, tobacco, and retail companies, and has lead to events becoming more profit-driven and heavily influenced by pro-capitalist organizations rather than the grassroots counter-culture movements of pride, love, and solidarity that they used to be. ]]> 2018-11-13 21:24:53 UTC https://padlet.com/ajshenefelt/2juaptighilb/wish/304042476