Political Commercial (Pathos) Assignment

I turned to the 2008 United States presidential election for this assignment. While browsing through the many political commercials on YouTube, I found one titled "Education" uploaded on John McCain's official page. Although the music and language in "Education" is not as intense and "scary" as other political commercials, the message itself is quite frightening.

The commercial starts off with nursery music (for a baby) -the kind you'd hear from a mobile over an infant's crib or baby swing. The speaker talks about Obama's "misses" in improving education. However, once the climax hits, the speaker becomes much more serious. He starts talking about Obama's one achievement in bettering education.

The narrator states, "Obama's one accomplishment? Legislation to teach comprehensive sex education to kindergartners. Learning about sex before learning to read? Barack Obama -wrong on education, wrong for your family."

I chose this commercial because its message is directed at the "family" -your own family. It hits close to home. Family to most is the most important factor in life so they got the "fear" part down. The message in this commercial is definitely pathos because it directs the messages towards our families which sends us on an emotional roller coaster. Here were are thinking, "What?! How can this man do this to our children?" Even if the statements and accusations are false, that doesn't stop us from immediately thinking about the well being of our families. The fear factor here is the well being and safety of our children.

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