My final choices for the artifact comparison are Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” speech and the “This is Your Brain on Drugs” commercials. I hope to compare the logos, ethos, and pathos used in these two artifacts. Both commercials give logical reasons to not use drugs, but they focus mainly on emotional appeal.
Nancy Reagan’s speech has a very strong emotional message about the threat that drugs pose to families and individuals who succumb to them. She talks about children who have struggled with health issues because of parental drug use and teenagers who have struggled with addiction.
The “This is Your Brain on Drugs” commercials took a shorter, more direct approach at individuals. There was less of a family appeal or a moral appeal, it was shifted to scare the youth of America away from drug usage.
Great choices, but be sure to go beyond intrinsic proofs.
You have, for example, opportunities to consider use of characters, historical context, and an assessment of the rhetorical situation of the time. Historical context will be very important.