When we think of rhetorical devices, we think of poems and speeches given by politicians and other "important persons." We don’t associate them with content writing or copywriting, far less ads.
However, rhetoric is concerned with the art of persuasion, just as content marketing is concerned with persuasion. Therefore, it stands to reason that rhetorical figures of speech would work in ads. And some of the best ads hinge on the use of rhetorical devices.
There are numerous advertisements where rhetorical devices are employed. However, it is not enough to rely on rhetorical devices. Rhetorical and literary devices should be seen as the tactics to achieve the intended effect of the ad.
Besides these tactics, you need the overall strategy. In rhetorical analysis, this overall strategy can be either one of three concepts: 1. Logos, 2. Ethos, and 3. Pathos. They are the approaches you take to persuade those who consume your ad.
Logos refers to appeals to logic. This is where you rely on statistics to convince readers. Ethos is an appeal to authority. This is where the status of the speaker featured in the ad is relied on. For example, a dentist promoting a specific brand of toothpaste.
Lastly, pathos refers to appeals to emotion. These are ads that connect with viewers and make them feel good or that move them to purchase or complete the intended action. We will take a look at a few ads and see how they employ both rhetorical devices and logos, ethos, and pathos.
In particular, I examine a few retro ads from two cosmetic companies, CoverGirl and L'Oréal, as well as a 2016 Super Bowl ad from Coca-Cola related to their "Taste the Feeling Campaign."

1. Geico’s Little Piggy advertisement
This is an old advertisement that features absurd humor quite heavily. The humor is based on Geico’s guarantee of saving 50% or more on car insurance and the nursery rhyme “This Little Piggy Went to Market.”
The ad took the piggy from the nursery rhyme and turned him into a kid coming back from school and catching a ride from a neighbor and screaming all the way home. The ad uses pathos or an appeal to our emotions. It obviously appeals to our sense of humor. However, this appeal to humor stems from the logos or logic associated with guaranteeing a 50% decrease in car insurance costs from Geico.
However, if you listen carefully, the rhetorical device being used here is erotema or rhetorical question. Geico is so confident about saving you 50% or more on car insurance that they turn the idea into a rhetorical question. You should already know the answer.
2. Coca-Cola Super Bowl ad
Our second ad is going to be a Super Bowl ad from Coca-Cola. Super Bowl ads are notorious for putting entertainment over message. However, I feel this Coca-Cola ad struck the right balance between being feel-good and entertaining and sticking to the message of its campaign.
The "Taste the Feeling" campaign was a popular and successful campaign run by Coca-Cola in 2016 to recover a loss in soda sales at that time. The name of the campaign alone can be described as a kind of literary device. It can be seen as a type of metaphor. Feelings, after all, cannot be tasted.
As the name suggests, the campaign relied heavily on appeals to emotion or pathos. The point of the campaign was to associate drinking Coca-Cola with the “feelings” of spending leisure time or happy time with family and friends. The wording of the phrase captures the concept rather well. Let's see how a Super Bowl video ad associated with the campaign uses rhetorical devices:
The ad is a video but tells its story with images without much talking. Instead, it uses words in large print and music in the background. Here is the text used in the video:
Ice with friends. Friends with stories. Stories with fire. Fire with Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola with music. Music with madness. Madness with you. You with Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola with feelings. Taste the feeling.
The ad here mostly makes use of anadiplosis. This is a rhetorical device that involves repetition of the ending at the beginning. Anadiplosis is used creatively in the ad to create a chain of connections. This chain of connections gives a kind of logic to a rather emotion-based campaign message. It can even be said that the tagline of the entire campaign at first glance seems illogical. How can anyone taste feelings?
The anadiplosis used in the ad bridges that gap between emotion and logic. It does so by connecting a series of associations related to having fun and "living life" with family, friends, and even strangers. All these associations eventually tie back to Coca-Cola as the ad ends with "Coca-Cola" and the campaign slogan.
3. L'Oréal
L'Oréal is an international make-up and hair product conglomerate. The phrase “Because You’re Worth It” is an iconic tagline that is about 50 years old. It associates the brand with women's self-esteem and self-worth.
This is a clever strategy as the L'Oréal brand is somewhat relatively expensive. By associating high prices with high self-esteem, the company could justify its higher price tag.
The original ad featured in the video makes use of a few rhetorical devices. To examine these devices, let's look at the copy of the text in the ad:
I use the most expensive hair color in the world — Preference by L'Oréal. It’s not that I care about money. It’s that I care about my hair. It’s not just the color. I expect great color. What’s worth more to me is the way my hair feels. Smooth and silky, but with body. It feels good against my neck. Actually, I don’t mind spending more for L’Oreal. Because I’m worth it.
The ad in the second and third sentences uses two devices — chiasmus and anaphora. Anaphora refers to repetition at the beginning. This is obvious in the repetition of “it’s” at the beginning of both sentences.
However, the most prominent rhetorical device used in the advertisement is chiasmus. Chiasmus refers to a reversal of structure in a phrase or sentence. The most famous example is President Kennedy's "It's not what your country can do for you; it's what you can do for your country."
Chiasmus occurs when the speaker says "It’s not that I care about money. It’s that I care about my hair." The speaker in the ad is defending herself proactively against accusations of being snobbish when it comes to buying hair products.
The chiasmus in the two sentences dismisses the unspoken accusation of being snobbish about hair products by mentioning it and then canceling it out. In short, the justification is that the speaker cares more about the value of using the best products for her hair and is willing to pay more for that value.
We could say that the rhetorical devices used in the ad reflect a reliance on both logos and pathos. Logos is reflected in the argument that the higher price is based on value more than anything else. The pathos appears in the feeling of high self-worth and self-esteem that the brand is being associated with.
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4. CoverGirl
CoverGirl is a prominent cosmetic brand. They frequently make use of literary devices in their ads as taglines. This includes:
Easy, Breezy, Beautiful.
This phrase includes assonance, the repetition of vowel sounds. The long “e” sound is repeated in “easy” and “breezy.” Also, there is alliteration in “breezy” and “beautiful” as the “b” sound is repeated. CoverGirl is well-known for relying on appeals to ethos. They typically include famous female celebrities as their spoke persons, including the likes of Queen Latifah and Zendeya.
This is not new for the company. Let’s take a look at a retro ad from the 1960s for CoverGirl where they also rely on a celebrity. It reveals even more traditional examples of rhetorical devices:
"This is the girl. This is the dress. And this is the look” is obvious anaphora or repetition at the beginning. Let’s look at another excerpt from the ad: “What photographer wouldn’t agree that this face, this fashion, this figure make the perfect cover for Seventeen Magazine?
The rhetorical devices used here include anaphora, erotema, and asyndeton. Asyndeton occurs when conjunctions such as “and” are left out. We can see that in this case where “and” should have come before “this figure” as it is the last item in a list.
Asyndeton is employed here to give the sentence rhythm and energy. We are made to think that the model’s list of amazing attributes is neverending. The ad appeals to Ethos or authority. We hear directly from a prominent model, Dorothea McGowan, who is featured in a prominent magazine. This means that if this brand of makeup is good enough for a supermodel, it is more than good enough for the average woman.
The ad also appeals to logic (or logos). It mentions the famous Noxzema medication in makeup to help improve complexion and "medicated" lipstick." In short, not only does the makeup look good, it keeps you healthy. The appeal to health means the ad rises above the mere vanity or emotional appeal of convincing women to buy makeup to just look good.
Advertisement copy should focus on sales, not entertainment
A few of the ads we looked at were quite entertaining and funny in terms of how they used rhetorical devices. However, there is the danger that we lose sight of the purpose of the ad, that is, selling. In your content marketing strategy, the focus should be on creating and implementing a content plan that drives your business goals.
To write copy that sells, you should rely on strategies that work. This means making emotional and logical appeals to customers, connecting these appeals to your product, and convincing them to buy. The Coca-Cola ad featured in this article is entertaining and feel-good.
But it is not just that. It is brand messaging that hits its point home and connects it emotionally to viewers. However, brand campaigning is different from ads that focus directly on sales. Ads focused on sales should be simpler and straight to the point.
A practical approach to writing copy would be the motivating sequence. There you follow four steps: 1. Get attention; 2. Show a need; 3. Satisfy the need; 4. Prove the product's effectiveness; and 5. Ask for a specific action.
The L'Oréal and CoverGirl ads do an effective job of following that process. When writing copy, whether or not you use rhetorical devices try to avoid entertaining too much and focus instead on connecting emotionally or logically with the reader in such a way that they are motivated to buy your service or product.
Cite this EminentEdit article |
Antoine, M. (2025, January 24). Advertisements with Rhetorical Devices. EminentEdit. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/advertisements-with-rhetorical-devices |
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