Kleenex Rhetorical Evidence

There are many factors that contribute to the effectiveness of a company’s advertisement. In 2017, Kleenex released an ad that attempts to convince the general public to switch from using regular towels to disposable hand towelettes. This relies greatly on how Kleenex uses rhetorical appeals and rhetorical fallacies to persuade the targeted viewers to purchase their product. In Kleenex’s ad, the creators showed a split in half image of a dirty hand towel next to their product; a box of disposable towels. By comparing a dirty towel with a clean one, Kleenex is using the rhetorical appeal, pathos, to appeal to how the targeted audience would feel when they imagine using a dirty towel compared to being able to use a clean one. Using a dirty towel every time is considered unsanitary. Kleenex knew this when creating

Their targeted audience is focused around “germ conscious” people (Schenker, 2014). This would influence the audience’s choice to buy the product. The ad gives no proof of ethos. It is not shown in the ad how the consumer is supposed to believe that every hand towel is automatically dirty after one use. Due to this fault, Kleenex gives the viewer no credibility in their product. Why should the viewer assume their towel is too dirty to use? Although the product seems like a good idea at a glance, just how good for the environment can it really be? By replacing regular hand towels with disposable ones, the consumer will be throwing away a towelette every time they wash their hands. Product waste will build up over time. There is no way to measure how much of a negative impact on the environment these hand towels