Appeals to emotion

I know I've written many things that connect the class assignments to this years election, but, it's a current event that makes it an easy target.

Pathos, the emotional appeal, is one of the most powerful tools used in today's marketing. When it comes to politics, all political ads really are just marketing poly's. Not to sound too cynical but for the most part, politicians just tell you what you want to hear at election time. Then, during their time in office (providing enough people believe their rhetoric and vote them in) they always stray away from many things they "marketed" to you during the election. This whole marketing focuses in on pathos. They target your feelings rather than discuss the issues. I know the book spends time talking about Maslow's Pyramid of Hierarchy. Maybe I'm wandering off course. I think my main point is the POWER of emotion when it comes to argumentation. When you give a persuasive speech, you're trying to get your audience to change how they feel about something. This is very similar to how politics operates. Politicians are trying to change the way you feel about them or (or in the case of negative campaigning) how you feel about someone else. Another similar situation is when supporters of a proposition want your vote. Appealing to your fear of "what would happen if it passes or not pass" is very effective. Fear drives more people to decide a certain way than any other tactic. My goal is to try and find some kind of fear in my topic that I can use to try and persuade my audience to see my topic the way I see it.