For my rhetorical analysis essay, I choose to analyze the artifact of musical artist Alessia Cara’s song and music video “Scars To Your Beautiful”, in correlation with Dove Self-Esteem Project’s artifact of the advertisement called “Reverse Selfie” (more on this artifact in previous posts). Here is my in-progress essay outline…

Introduction: Take a minute to observe others in your surroundings- chances are you will find multiple people hunchbacked, eyes glued to a glowing rectangle, and fingers swiping endlessly in an up-and-down motion. It’s a high probability that these individuals are scrolling through some sort of social media platform. Due to expansions in technology, we now see increases in the levels of screen time, especially in our youth. Younger generations look to social media influencers and models for inspiration, but instead compare themselves to these “perfect” people which ultimately lowers their self-esteem. “Reverse Selfie” is an advertisement created by Dove, a skin-care company, that illustrates the detrimental effects social media and photo editing cause for our youth. The video begins with a heavily edited selfie of a young girl who modified herself to look older. In reverse, the video depicts the picture as it starts to undo the edits she created, until eventually, we see the girl in her natural state, looking defeated on her bed. To end the advertisement, Dove acknowledges the fact that the pressures of social media and the beauty standard are harming our girl’s self-esteem and they encourage everyone to have #TheSelfieTalk. Dove, being a popular brand that emphasizes restoring one’s natural beauty, has successfully reached millions of youth with their efforts in combating lower levels of confidence. Similarly, musical artist Alessia Cara decided to call action to this issue through her song and music video, “Scars To Your Beautiful”.

Thesis: With such strong advocation for the idea that “true beauty lies within”, both “Reverse Selfie” and “Scars To Your Beautiful”, employ rhetorical techniques, most effectively incorporating pathos, which analyzes or strengthens the audience’s emotional state to appeal to their goal of educating youth on the importance of self-love and the harmful effects of the beauty standard.

Main Points:

• Starting with a brief background, including the origins of the second artifact, the artist’s reasons for creating it, and any other important information that could relate to the artifacts appeal of either ethos, pathos, or logos.
•  Provide examples of effective uses of ethos and logos in both the music video and the lyrics. Specifically focusing on how she develops a trusting character and how the structure of both the video and lyrics help the audience correlate the message with the everyday ups and downs of life.
  • Although both rhetorical techniques play an important role in expanding and understanding the message, the use of pathos alone proves to be the most effective overall.
• Provide compelling examples of the artist’s use of pathos in both the music video and lyrics used.
  • Express a throughly developed analysis of how appealing to the emotional state her audience is already in, has a more effective impact of conveying and presenting her message as compared to ethos and logos.

Conclusion: Alessia Cara pushes the rhetorical boundaries of ethos and logos by showcasing herself as a common, trustworthy individual and purposely structuring her music video and lyrics in a way that allows the audience to relate the issue to everyday life. However, her most effective rhetorical techniques lies in her powerful usage of pathos. (Briefly re-list all the pathos examples from body paragraph). (Conclusion is still a work in progress…)

Here, I also highlight the sources I am using for this essay and how they connect to the artifact:

1. Stutz, Colin. “Alessia Cara Opens up about Her Struggle with Hair Loss That Inspired ‘Scars to Your Beautiful.’” Billboard, 10 Aug. 2016, www.billboard.com/music/pop/alessia-cara-hair-loss-scars-to-your-beautiful-7468466/. This source is a summary of an interview that was conducted with Alessia Cara after her song came it. In the interview she explains the reasons why she felt the need to make such a song, and why she feels so passionate to get her message across. The explanation of her struggles of self-confidence helps build ethos with her audience since she can relate to what others are going through.
2. Selby, Daniele. “Singer Alessia Cara Is a Determined Force for Positive Change.” Global Citizen, Sept. 2017, www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/alessia-cara-gcf2017-festival-here/#:~:text=Her%20song%20%E2%80%9CScars%20to%20YourMTV%202017 %20Video%20Music%20Awards. This source also encompasses multiple quotes from Alessia Cara that clearly state her goals for releasing such a song. It also touches on the impact the song has had on different groups of people and how it has become an anthem of self-love. Both contribute to the development of ethos and pathos in the artifact.
3. Love, Alessia Cara Lyric Analysis by Makayla. “Scars to Your Beautiful by Alessia Cara (Song Lyric Analysis.” prezi.com, prezi.com/isy5_9ckxwuu/scars-to-your-beautiful-by-alessia-cara-song-lyric-analysis. This source details a lyrical analysis of the song, drawing attention to specific metaphors, hyperboles, and personification used throughout the song. It also does a short dive into the rhetorical devices of the artifact. This helps with a better overall understanding of the ethos, pathos, and logos used effectively throughout it.
4. AlessiaCaraVEVO. “Alessia Cara – Scars to Your Beautiful (Official Video).” YouTube, 11 July 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWASeaYuHZo. This is the link to the actual music video which depicts the artist in an empty space but also pans to different types of people as they say some encouraging words or talk about their own experiences. The video along with the lyrics heavily contributes to the pathos of the artifact and the structure of the video helps expand its logos.

Alessia Cara’s Know-It-All Album Cover