The Power of Emotional Appeals in Persuasion: Humor and Sadness in The F Word and AT&T Commercial

“Emotional appeals (sometimes called appeals to pathos) are powerful tools for influencing what people think and believe” (Everything’s an argument 38). There are many methods that can be used to create an emotional connection with people. In the story called “The F word” by Firoozeh Dumas, the author use humor to emotionally connect the readers to her story. In some instances when writers want to get a deeper message across to the audiences they use a sadder approach. In the commercial by AT&T, they try to get the message across texting and driving and the serious consequences.

A good method that some authors use to get the attention and achieve a connection with the audience is by using humor. In the story called “The F Word,” the author, Firoozeh Dumas, talks about her experience growing up in American with an Iranian name that was very difficult for people to say. She goes to talk about how it was more of a struggle fitting in with her name than anything else. “All of us immigrants knew that moving to America would be fraught with challenges, but none of us thought that our names would be such an obstacle. (Firoozeh Dumas 751) Being so fed up with the name butchering, she decides to change her name to a much easier American name, Julie. She goes by the name of Julie for a while then decides to go back to Firoozeh. She mentions in the book that after a while she stopped caring about what people call her and responds to just about any name that begins with an F (Firoozeh Dumas 754). Dumas was successful in getting her story across to the readers and many people in this country can relate to this story coming from a different country with a long or difficult name to say.

To get a message across or create awareness, some authors and the media like to use more of a deeper more relatable approach, by having people talk about their life experiences, putting up graphic pictures, even show the tragedy that is occurring because of something. In the T. V. ad by AT&T, they raise awareness of the dangers of texting while driving. In the commercial, it had one word show up in the beginning that said, “Yeah,” and you hear the voice of a girl saying, “This is the text my sister was reading from me when she crashed her car and died. It was a quick sixteen second commercial, but it was a successful way of using pathos and good message to get across to the audience with a deep emotional connection. This shows that your life can change because of a simple message and affect those who love you. It can be very relatable to those younger drivers and even parents that like to use their cell phones while driving. Pathos is used when writers or even the media want to gain an emotional connection to their audiences and use emotional appeals to influence them. In “The ‘F’ Word,” by Firoozeh Dumas, she uses humor to connect her story to her audiences.

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It was a very relatable story and was a good example of using pathos. Another successful form of pathos was in an advertisement by AT&T about texting and driving. It was a sad form of pathos but it was a good message to get across to the audiences that drive and like to use their cell phones. The use of pathos is widely used to influence and draw an emotional appeal to the readers. Some are successful with it and others fail to gain a connection. The story of Dumas and the advertisement by AT&T were both successful with the use of pathos.

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