Emily Bruno

English 1120
Stuvland
02.16.2023
Project 1: Rhetorical Analysis
Word Count: 879

Project One: Jaws

For my project one, I chose the JAWS movie poster as my topic. I will discuss the goal of

the designer, and why they wanted to persuade an audience. I’m going to analyze the different

types of rhetoric that the poster designer uses, in order to persuade the buyer to watch Jaws. I’ll

break down how the designer of the poster used ethos, pathos, and logos in their color, font,

words, and size choices. Lastly, I will argue that their

persuasion tactics were successful in delivering their

argument.

The first and main goal of the designer is money.

Every producer wants money, it’s their career and their

way of living. Them succeeding in a design is proven

by how many sales are made. They want something

that sells; something that convinces the audience into

going to watch the movie and paying for tickets. Or to

buy the movie at a store, to sell the franchise. They

wanted to communicate to the audience that it was a

scary movie, and that it was definitely worth watching. They were trying to compel the audience

into believing that Jaws is a movie they would want to watch. The targeted audience being
adults, probably adults who want to be scared watching the movie. Maybe even adults who enjoy

beaches, and swimming, and are ready to be spooked by what they can’t see in the ocean.

First, the designer uses pathos with the way they play on the audience’s sense of fear. The

way they designed the size of the shark versus the size of the girl. She is a tiny, small little girl,

and the shark is huge. Plus they made it to where the shark is obviously looking at the girl, but

the girl has no idea that the shark is there. And, they show all of the shark's giant teeth. I know

that scares me. They use the bright colors at the top, with the girl, and dark colors at the bottom

with the shark. The color alone gives off an impending doom vibe, it’s certainly luring.

Second, they use logos in order to help persuade the audience. First, and most obviously

their color choices are very logical. The blue is more calm toned, and not very bright. Then,

you’re brought to the bright red title. Not only is the title bright red, but the font is bulky and the

words are in all caps. It completely draws your eyes to the title, without you even knowing it.

They also used a more minimalistic approach, and since they did that, the details that they did

insert make that much more of an impact with the audience. Like how they didn’t put any other

words on the poster, except for the title in big bright letters.

Lastly, they used ethos in order to help them to sell the movie to the audience. They play

with the audience’s ethicality first, by making the only human on the poster, a girl. At that period

in time, especially, women were viewed as needing to be protected, for example. Some could

say, they were viewed as helpless. So, society being society, the little girl being out there all on

her own adds a sense of wanting to save her, or help her. Even if you can’t actually save her,

you’re still drawn to watch the movie. One more thing with logos and the girl, they put a girl

with little to no clothes on right in the center of the movie poster. I know that definitely attracts a

certain crowd, probably a big one at that Whatever they can do to get you to buy something.
 I believe they did succeed in communicating their argument to the audience and

persuading them. They, very efficiently, used ethos, pathos, and logos as persuasion methods. It

was the “highest-grossing” movie of all time, until Star Wars was released two years later. It

made a little less than 300 million in the domestic box office. That poster was in theaters

everywhere: it was drawing attention from everywhere, and everyone. They clearly knew how to

use rhetoric, which helped the movie reach the amount of fame that it did, and continues to

reach.

They used many different persuasion methods in the movie poster, but in this essay I

analyzed how ethos, pathos, and logos were built into the different elements of the poster. I

described how, by their choice of design, it helped to sell more movies. I also described why they

wanted to persuade an audience, and what their goal in doing so was. Jaws, and specifically the

poster, is a prime example of how to use rhetoric to persuade an audience. They succeeded in

their goal of getting a lot of money, considering JAWS was and continues to be an incredibly

popular horror movie. Even though many people today wouldn’t consider it to be “scary”, I’d say

it’s now considered to be a classic, and that’s definitely a success.

 Citation

“Jaws (1975) - Financial Information.” The Numbers,

https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Jaws#tab=summary.

Amazon.com: Jaws - Movie Poster (Regular Style - Retro / Vintage Design ...

https://www.amazon.com/Jaws-Poster-Regular-Vintage-Design/dp/B09FM4RZ6H.