The Power of Ethos

Why do most people overpay for the things that they buy? It is not because they want to or is it because they have nothing better to do with their money, it is because of something that all advertising companies do they use ethos. Ethos appeals to the trustworthiness of the person selling the product. 

Kobe Bryant is one of the most hardworking basketball players ever. He works everyday to get better at his game. Also many people like and respect Kobe’s opinion. So when Nike is trying to sell one of their newer basketball shoes, they use Kobe as the sponsor of it. Everyone knows that Kobe Bryant has reached heights in basketball that only a selected few has ever reached, so when he sponsor a commercial about hard work people will listen. 

But they also know that not all people watch basketball and not everyone cares about basketball so they also get many other people who are very successful like Serena Williams, Kanye West, Jerry West, Landon Donovan, Wang Leehom, and many more people that helps them to a more broader audience. They do not try to sell the shoe; they try to sell the Kobe System with the shoe. They do this because not everyone cares about basketball, but everyone wants to be great at what they do. With the people from different sports and people from the music industry trying to buy this product tells the mind one thing, the shoes help people go beyond success. This commercial shows that everyone can go beyond successful with this shoe. 

Ethos is a type of rhetoric that will allow people to think they are getting the best product on the market. This will happen because they think that if one of the greatest basketball players, wide receivers, tennis players, and soccer players need the shoe to be better, they nee the shoe too.

Rhetoric is a very powerful tool that people can use because it allows them to persuade other people of their opinion and try to give them some more knowledge.