Most people believe the choices one makes has rational explanations. They like to think their actions are well thought out and calculated, but the bitter truth is that more often than not, emotions are the reason people do what they do. Now, emotions are a wondrous and crucial part of everyone’s life, there is no denying that, but they cloud your judgement and interfere with making intelligent decisions. Politicians, businesses, commercials, and many others use advertisements to hit people where it counts, their emotions. People have found advertisements to be the perfect way to reach out to the masses and manipulate them. Advertisements use pathos, which appeals to emotions, to sway someone into believing or supporting something. So all advertisements, no matter how different they all seem, appeal to some part of the senses to impact a person’s decisions.

There are many different advertising techniques, seven of which are very widely known. Bandwagon is one technique. This technique is used to make someone feel left out. It is supposed to send the message that “most people have this or are doing this so you should too” (Quizlet). Using loaded words is another technique. Loaded words are very image rich and have strong emotions. When a “famous personality is used to endorse [a] product” it is called a testimonial (Foothilltech). Advertisements will often try to put down their competitors and make them look bad in order to make their product seem more appealing. This technique is referred to as name calling. The plain folk technique is using somebody average to sell something. Glittering generalities uses vague but appealing words to make it seem as if the product they are trying to sell will have some wonderful effect, but provides no real proof. Bribery is also a common advertising technique. As humans, we tend to be greedy, so being offered a “desirable extra” convinces people to purchase/do something.

In the year 2013, Seaworld was hit hard when the movie Blackfish was released. Blackfish is a film documenting the life of the orcas that are held in captivity at various Seaworld locations. In the film we see fun loving, social whales deteriorate into aggravated animals. According to a few previous Seaworld trainers, they depended on torture methods in order to make the orcas behave properly and do as they are taught (Blackfish). Citizens nationwide were in shock. They could not believe the same sweet animals that provided them with entertainment were being starved and isolated. Seaworld's funds plummeted. Although the company is still suffering from the damage that Blackfish caused, Seaworld recently spent over ten million dollars on advertisement promoting the new and improved animal theme park. Their new advertisement used the loaded words and glittering generalities techniques. The company claims that the animals are ¨healthy¨ and ¨thriving,¨ and that the trainers ¨wouldn’t work here if they weren’t¨ (Thedodo.com par 1-4). With these new advertisements out Seaworld came to life again. Profits went up as more and more families gathered in the crowds to watch the performing animals. In just three years, Seaworld managed to draw people back to their parks. Now, how is it that Seaworld could bounce back so quickly from such a devastating blow? It is the power of emotions. Hearing that the orcas enjoy performing and providing entertainment, people are happy. They are glad that the animals are happy and enjoy being in captivity. The ad also claims "government research shows they live just as long as whales in the wild" (Thedodo.com). The people watching the new advertisement think that Seaworld is doing a good deed by saving taking in whales and giving them a good home, so they come to watch the shows and give their support. In a short amount of time people have gone from despising Seaworld, to loving the aquatic theme park.

Just like Seaworld, modeling appeals to people's emotions. By using the most attractive and popular models to wear their clothes, makeup, or shoes, they make people want to buy those products. Society has standards of what “beauty” is. Women are expected to have “long legs, great hair, and curves in all the right places. According to modern day society, girls should walk and talk pretty, have perfect skin, and cake on makeup; they should watch their weight and keep up with the newest trends in fashion”, but in most cases these attributes are not something that can be controlled (Huffington Post par 2). While for men having  “a high forehead, strong brow, and solid jaw represents a masculine face. The body looms large in what people find attractive in the male physique” (Lifescript par 8-9). The techniques used in these advertisements are bandwagon, testimonial, glittering generalities, and bribery. You see these type of men and women plastered on television, put on billboards, all over magazine pages, and taking over the Internet. There is not a place where you can go where these standards do not apply. "Normal" people see these ads and feel ashamed of their bodies because they do not live up to what is idolized as beautiful or perfect. These ads are so effective because they prey on people's emotions and insecurities to convince them buy or take part in something.

Such simple things like colors, word choice, models, actors, and images can manipulate emotions and cause someone to act on them. The brain can hold so much knowledge and common sense, yet still be overridden by emotions. Advertisements use pathos as a method of persuasion not only in modeling and commercials, but also in many other things that affect people in their everyday lives.