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Joshua Hall

Professor Decker

English-1A

10 November 2021

Rhetorical Appeals and Principles of Influence in a Staur Advertisement

Advertisements have quickly become a billion-dollar grossing industry, pointing out

various innovations, devices, and services people and businesses try to sell. Many of these ads

use rhetorical strategies that have been utilized ever since the dawn of advertisements

themselves, most of them are augmented to specifically entice you to buy products from them.

Take for example this ad from Stauer (see Fig. 1, p. 2). It utilizes many different rhetorical

strategies used to influence the average reader of this magazine. In the Winter 2021 issue of

Westways magazine, popular jewelry and watch maker, Stauer, ran an advertisement using ethos,

logos, principle of scarcity, and the principle of authority to sell genuine turquoise gemstone

necklaces. In this ad, Stauer boasts that these necklaces are beautiful, rare, and culturally

influenced by native North Americans with a quote by the Smithsonian. This ad could be

damaging to the native American culture, due to its rarity and also increased demand in mining

for the already depleting supply. Native American culture has been oppressed for centuries and

these turquoise gemstones belong under their influence.

How is this advertisement influencing readers?

Stauer is a luxury brand and sells many high-priced items like jewelry and watches. The

challenge set before them is selling these high-priced items to a wide spectrum of customers to

turn a profit. The problem is, items like necklaces, rings, and other accessories serve little

practical significance, besides outward appearance. So companies like Stauer use rhetorical
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strategies to help sell their items that the average shopper may overlook for something cheaper or

avoid the whole product as a whole.

Fig. 1. Stauer Ad.

Ethos Approach

Probably the biggest selling point of the turquoise necklace featured in the ad, is its

connection to Native American culture. This strategy is called ethos; ethos is a rhetorical strategy

that deals with any historical and cultural connections, which is prevalent in this ad. The primary

focus of using ethos in this ad is to invoke a sense of cultural embrace. Essentially the ad wants

you to buy this product in order to be more culturally inclusive. Although the connection to
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Native American culture itself is not a problem, rather the monopoly needed to support such

jewelry is worrying.

As stated in the ad, paragraph #2, lines 4-8, only a specified region produces such

gemstones and only a small percentage mined from that area is suitable for jewelry. This could

be damaging to Native American culture as one of their cultural treasures is being monopolized

by major jewelry manufacturers for profit. If this continues, eventually all of the turquoise

crystals will be gone.

Principle of Scarcity

Rhetorical strategies are far from the only principles of influence in this ad. In fact, many

ads nowadays use multiple combinations of rhetorical strategies and principles of influence. For

instance, this ad portrays an item of cultural significance, but also as stated above is made from a

rare material, and little of the mined gemstones, “less than 5%,” are suitable for jewelers. An

item's rarity can play a big role in the sales pitch; this is known as the principle of scarcity. The

principle of scarcity is used in advertisements to evoke a sense of urgency, since the item is made

from rare and scarce materials, people instinctively want to purchase them before they are gone.

This only further adds to the damage of Native American culture.

What does this ad suggest?

As mentioned in this ad, turquoise gemstones are quite rare and a valued, traditional

artifact in Native American culture, which could present some negative connotations. Assuming

the ad’s report on the gemstones are true, Native Americans will lose a generational tradition,

potentially damaging native culture. As stated above, only 5% of turquoise gemstones are

suitable for making jewelry, and only about 20 mines in the American West still produce these

valuable gemstones. Additionally, this could also suggest that Stauer plans to maintain a
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monopoly on these gemstones at the expense of Native Americans in their respective regions.

Overall, this endeavor could prove devastating towards natives and their culture.

Conclusion

From what ads portray, people can analyze the fine print and potentially determine

hidden meaning and motives behind the product or even the company itself. Overall this ad does

seem like just a general sales pitch like most ads in a magazine, but it could be hiding a deeper

secret behind the scenes. In our modern life, this ad is only one of millions printed or streamed in

popular media, and it will likely continue into coming generations. All ads portray a message,

but in the end, that message is generally the same: it’s all to make money.
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Works Cited

Stauer Advertisement. Westways, Winter 2021, p. 35.