Your brain on drugs and it's rhetorical outlook

Movie 1
Observations

• Everyone is it's audience
• Serious, analogous tone
• oil represents drugs
• egg represents brain
• simplistic yet effective

Inferences

• Don't do drugs
• Made to make the audience aware of the seriousness of doing drugs
• Appeals to the emotions of the audience
• Very simple way to get point across

As for the first video, it captures the audience through a simplistic metaphor. By using a single egg and hot oil, the creator of this public service announcement is able to reach a more vast audience; it's something everyone can understand. The tone is of utmost seriousness, yet it gives the audience something tangible to relate to. The video's dominant rhetorical strategy would be pathos since it evokes a plethora of human emotions; however, pathos is not the only strategy used. Although ethos is almost non-existent because the audience neither knows the narrator or the company producing the ad for it's credibility, the video does contain logos. It's common knowledge to know that your brain being fried is obviously a poor choice, and that is why this public service announcement uses this approach to logos.

Movie 2
Observations

• Everyone is the audience but it leans more towards youth
• Serious, abusive tone
• Frying pan represents drugs
• Egg represents brain/body
• Very dramatic
• Only one type of drug is mentioned
  

Inferences

• Geared toward younger audience
• Used to make public aware of the effects of heroine
• Using heroine can ruin not only your body, but your family and your entire life
• Appeals to emotions of the audience

In the second movie, an egg again is used as a metaphor for the brain, but also the body; however, this movie only targets the use of one drug: heroine. Unlike the first video, it only discusses one drug. The second movie is also more effective because of it's use of more rhetorical strategies. Once again the major strategy used is pathos, but ethos is used in this movie. A reasonably attractive teenage female is used to describe the effects of heroine to the audience; thus, appealing to the audience and giving them someone they can see instead of just a voice, and this fact gives the video credibility. The tone is somewhat of an abusive tone giving the audience a feeling of uneasiness. This abusive tone also gives the video it's logos because logic tells the audience that, they too, could end up ruining everything by using heroine.