Rhetorical Triangle: Oxy Clean

In the Billy Mays advertisement for OxiClean detergent ball, also known as “The Ball”, Billy uses the Rhetorical Triangle. The purpose of the rhetorical triangle in this commercial is to persuade the consumers that this product really works, and that they should own it. This commercial uses both pathos and logos, in various parts of the video. Pathos is a part of the rhetorical triangle that is used to persuade people into doing and buying stuff emotionally. For example, in the beginning of the video it has many different people saying, “I’m on the ball” and then having May say “Are you on the ball?” Having this in the video is suppose to show consumers that the people that have this product are doing well and that they need to own it in order to do well too. Also in the beginning of the video it says, “laundry just got easier” which also is trying to show that if you buy this product, laundry will be easy enough for your children to do and you won’t have to worry about it at all anymore. This video also uses logos, which is rhetorical truth and fact. For example, this video uses logos when Bill Mays is asked how should they use it and how to set it up, and he says “all you do is pop in a ball then close the latch then throw it in the washer!” This is fact and logic because that is really all the consumer would have to do in order for the product to work. 

Oxyclean!