Michelin Tire ad

This advertisement contains example or illustration and cause and effect, as well as a rhetorical appeal to both logos and pathos. I chose this Michelin tire advertisement depicted in a magazine article, as it uses several forms of persuasion. The ad is directed towards an audience of parents or adult members of a family, who are also the large majority of people purchasing tires. Here, the Michelin company is illustrating how their brand of tires is more efficient than their competitor’s by using the consumer’s emotional response to the baby in the picture. The ad is attempting to persuade the viewers of this advertisement that from using their product, their children and loved ones will be safer. This visual rhetoric appeals to logos through this cause and effect relationship and pathos through the image of the baby with the text “Michelin, because so much is riding on your tires”.  This text portrays Michelin tires as the best and only choice if one wishes to protect their child, which can be considered an over-sentimentalization and a scare tactic. From this advertisement, consumers will feel confident in their purchasing Michelin tires, as they are supposedly safer than those of the company’s competitors. Michelin is not only attempting to sell tires with this ad, but a feeling of security as well.