When the following line appears in an ad, it is an example of which type of propaganda usage? Four out of five doctors recommend drinking three glasses of milk per day to stay healthy and strong.

Answer 1

Okay, so we're talking about rhetorical appeals/persuasive strategies here. Propaganda often uses rhetorical appeals, but rhetorical appeals can be used for many other purposes as well (for example, in a persuasive essay for English class)!

Rhetorical appeals are used to help build an argument. There are three main types of rhetorical appeals: ethos, pathos, and logos. The best arguments use a combination of all three.

Ethos: an appeal to authority and usage of credible sources.

Logos: an appeal to logic and usage of reasoning.

Pathos: an appeal to emotion and usage of images/ideas/etc. that cause people to feel sad, afraid, excited, happy, etc. (Pathos is especially common in propaganda and can sometimes be rather manipulative if not paired with ethos and logos).

So, this example of the "four out of five doctors" is an example of ethos because the statement relies on the authority and credibility of doctors.