Rhetoric is about persuading through language, combining persuasion and argumentation. It encompasses a set of techniques aimed at expressing oneself effectively. Even without being a rhetoric expert, a marketing professional must have a good grasp of their clients’ language. To understand the subtleties of sales pitches or advertising messages, it is necessary to be familiar with various rhetorical devices.

According to Edward F. McQuarrie and David Glen Mick, a rhetorical device is a skillful way of deviating from conventional expectations in an expression. This deviation focuses more on form than content, while respecting an unchanging framework despite the diversity of content and context. Although the use of rhetorical devices in advertising slogans is not illegal, it must not lead to misleading advertising.

Among the classic forms of rhetoric are wordplay and puns. For example, the Adams agency plays with the word “ads” by replacing the letter “d” with an asterisk to create “as,” which sounds phonetically like the word “ass.” Thus, the displayed slogans can be interpreted in different ways depending on the word chosen.