"Rhetorical Analysis of a Corporate Website: Philip Morris, Ethos, and Ethics"

Introduction

Although many centuries have passed since the ancient Greeks developed the first theories of rhetoric, their concepts still can be used to understand how businesses today struggle to find a balance between ethics and expediency when writing their annual reports or creating websites. Corporations like Philip Morris, one of the largest tobacco companies in the world, have an especially difficult time in balancing their wish to appear ethical with their desire to be profitable. Ancient philosophers such as Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, and Gorgias, studied and debated the same complex rhetorical situation that present-day corporations face.

The Philip Morris USA corporate website is a fascinating modern example of rhetoric. Philip Morris is the largest tobacco company in the United States. Yet, as required by the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) that they have with the government, an anti-smoking campaign is now featured on their website.  According to the agreement, the website is supposed to inform the general public about the potential hazards of using cigarettes and other assorted products with nicotine. This entails presenting facts and statistics that could potentially portray their products and the company as a whole in a negative light. The website features many rhetorical elements to get its messages across including ethos, pathos, and logos sometimes in an obvious way, but at other times much more subtly.