SENSEILUE EDUCATION RESOURCE

How to Write a Persuasive Advertisement

ETHOS • LOGOS • PATHOS

CASE STUDY: Apple — “Think Different / Here’s to the Crazy Ones”

THE BIG IDEA

A persuasive advertisement doesn't just tell you what to buy.

It gives you a reason to believe, feel, and act.

Appeal

Simple Meaning

Ask Yourself

ETHOS

Trust me.

Why should I believe you?

LOGOS

Think about it.

Does the reasoning make sense?

PATHOS

Feel this.

What emotion moves me?

1. DECONSTRUCT THE AD

Apple's campaign used black-and-white images and footage of figures such as Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King Jr., Amelia Earhart, Muhammad Ali, Mahatma Gandhi, Pablo Picasso and others. The advertisement ends with Apple's identity and the concise message “Think Different.”

Notice what's largely missing:

No specifications. No price. No product demonstration.

So what is Apple actually selling?

ETHOS — Borrow Credibility

The people shown had established reputations for achievement, creativity, leadership, courage, or challenging convention.

Apple places its brand beside those people.

Persuasive move:
If these are the kinds of people who change the world, perhaps Apple belongs in that same creative world.

That's association. The famous people aren't necessarily endorsing the product; their reputations help establish the campaign's identity.

LOGOS — Build the Argument

Strip away the poetry and the argument roughly becomes:

People who think differently → challenge convention → create change.

Apple celebrates people who think differently.

Therefore, Apple invites the audience to associate its brand with creativity, independent thinking, and change.

That's an important lesson: logos doesn't always mean statistics. Logos can be the reasoning that connects one idea to another.

PATHOS — Make Us Feel Something

This is arguably where the copy does its heaviest work.

Words such as “misfits,” “rebels,” “troublemakers,” and “genius” transform being different from something potentially negative into something admirable.

The emotional proposition becomes:

You don't have to fit in.
Being different can be your strength.

The advertisement invites the viewer to identify with the story, not merely evaluate a computer.

2. ART + COPY

Great advertising often makes the visual idea and written idea reinforce each other.

ART → Iconic black-and-white portraits communicate people who changed things.

COPY → Language celebrates people who challenge conventional thinking.

BRAND → Apple positions itself within that story.

ART + COPY = ONE MESSAGE

The picture gets your attention.
The words give it meaning.
Together they make the argument.

3. NOW WRITE YOUR OWN

Start with the audience—not the product.

AUDIENCE → PURPOSE → PROMISE → PROOF → EMOTION → ACTION

Ask:

Who am I trying to persuade?
What do I want them to believe or do?
Why should they trust me? → ETHOS
What evidence or reasoning supports my claim? → LOGOS
How should they feel? → PATHOS
What image communicates the idea? → ART
What words make it memorable? → COPY
What should they do next? → CALL TO ACTION

4. THE ONE-SENTENCE TEST

Before creating the advertisement, complete:

I want __________ to believe/do __________ because __________.

If you can't complete that sentence clearly, you're probably not ready to make the ad.

5. CRITICAL-THINKING CHALLENGE

Apple's campaign gives us a particularly useful question:

Is persuasion still effective when an advertisement provides very little direct evidence about the product itself? Why?

Then push deeper:

Where does persuasion end and manipulation begin?

That takes the lesson beyond simply identifying ethos, logos, and pathos and gets students to evaluate the quality and ethics of persuasion—which I think is the more valuable learning objective.

The “Think Different” campaign was created by TBWA\Chiat\Day in 1997 and used television and print executions; historical accounts identify Rob Siltanen and other members of the agency team as contributors to its development.