Aristotle’s Rhetorical persuasive elements, namely logos, ethos, and pathos, are widely adapted in any kind of business document with the intention to hook the audience’s attention. This paper analyses one McDonald’s (also known as “MEKDI” in Malaysia) video advertisement on the application of rhetorical elements based on Aristotle’s persuasion of appeal. Identifying these three elements is the main purpose of this paper in realising the persuasive content drawn towards the audience in the advertisement, leading this paper to conclude whether the usage of rhetoric element strategies is overwhelming or not, given the author’s specific purpose and specific audience. The document studied is one video advertisement of the famous fast-food chain McDonald’s Malaysia. The rhetorical analysis was used to interpret the meaning of this assessment topic. Based on the findings, the video advertisement uses emotional content to engage with the audience rather than the rational quality of the advertisements where the logic of health and nutrition claims are not salient concerns. Further studies should include audience feedback to enable data triangulation for validation purposes as this paper is only to ascertain the rhetorical elements used in the advertisements and does not consider the rhetorical elements that appeal more to the audience.

Article visualizations: