Get Glad about  GLAD !

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For my first Rhetoric and Civic life blog post, which also happens to be my first ever blog post, I chose to analyze the popular advertisement and slogan for the company Glad. The rhetoric that Glad and every other company present us with throughout our daily lives often goes unnoticed or gets overlooked. But I’m sure many are familiar with the slogan, “Don’t get mad. Get Glad.” It has been used in most of the Glad advertisements and commercials for years.  The three main forms of rhetoric: ethos, logos, and pathos, are combined here to create their advertisement. Glad establishes their ethos or reputation by making a comparison between a regular bag and a Glad bag. They express that their garbage bags are the best by demonstrating that they are super sturdy and odor-resistant, unlike your average trash bag. In doing this, they also exhibit logos because after seeing or hearing their demonstration it seems only logical to buy their product. After all, I mean who wants to smell their stinky trash throughout their entire house as the horrendous odors leak out through their typical trash bag? In their advertisement, like all other ads, they specifically provide you with several reasons why their product is better than the other brands that are available and therefore why it makes sense to use their merchandise. The pathos in this advertisement is found in their slogan. They cleverly appeal to the consumer’s emotions by telling him or her that using their product will actually make them happy or more specifically “Glad.” They even use a big, bold red font on a bright yellow background so that their entire slogan, including their brand name stands out. The colors they chose also ensure that the viewer is thinking happy thoughts. The advertisements that Glad has created are definitely successful forms of rhetoric in action, and it can be surprisingly interesting to take time to actually contemplate and analyze this.