Teaching Modes of Persuasion with Nathan For You

The following is an activity that has been developed to assist in teaching modes of persuasion to Year 10. It chiefly relies on Nathan For You, in which business guru Nathan Fielder assists failing businesses by giving them outlandish ideas designed to bring in new customers. For those of you unfamiliar with the twisted genius of Nathan For You, the Comedy Channel's reality TV satire is a near-perfect vehicle for teaching English concepts and skills that relate to persuasive writing and advertising. Unfortunately, the show often veers into inappropriate territory, which means that carefully selected excerpts accompanied with parental permission notes will be necessary to make it into a teaching tool.

One such clip deals with Nathan offering his help to a burger restaurant in Los Angeles. In this segment of the TV series, Nathan latches onto the business owner's spurious claim that his burgers are 'the best in L.A.' and literally goads him into putting his money where his mouth is. In other words, Nathan plays naive and takes this claim at face value, offering every customer of the burger restaurant a $100 bill if their burger isn't the best they've ever eaten. Anyway, before I talk too much more about it, here's the clip:

Some students will pick up on the absurd humour and Fielder's satirical exploration of reality TV genre tropes. For those who don't find anything funny in the host's schtick, the extract still affords an opportunity to examine each of the three mode of persuasion: logos, pathos, and ethos.

Before undertaking a study of the clip, revise the three modes with students.

• Logos: The use of reason to convince someone of something. Examples include the use of logic, statistics, facts, supporting evidence, analogies, some figurative language. Note that logos does not necessarily equate with the truth.
• Pathos: The use of emotion to persuade. Examples include emotional manipulation, imagery, vivid language designed to engender sympathy or empathy from the responder, personal anecdotes.
• Ethos: The use of authority or credibility to get someone to trust an opinion. Examples include celebrity endorsement, professionalism, brand identity, confidence, credible sources.

The clip should be used after the students have a working understanding of these modes. Once they watch Nathan's disastrous plan unfold they can then have a go at answering the following questions (I have included the answers here for ease of delivery but feel free to expand or adapt in whatever fashion you like)

Question 1: When Gustavo claims that he makes the 'best' burgers, what kind of persuasion is this?

Answer: This is logos. The term 'best' is an absolute term, inferring that there are no better burgers to be found anywhere. This is a form of logic, albeit one that is alarmingly and amusingly used by many fast food restaurants without any supporting evidence. Students may be able to make a connection with their own experience here by pointing out the existence of multiple 'best pies in Australia' pie shops.

Question 2: Explain Nathan's idea and how this is a form of ethos.

Answer: Nathan is offering customers $100 in cash if they do not agree that the burger is the best after eating it. He hopes that this will help Gustavo attract sceptics who will then be converted into returning customers after they realise how great the burgers are. The $100 is a kind of guarantee. The use of a formal assurance offered to customers before they eat the burger is intended to encourage trust, therefore this is ethos.

Question 3: Why do you think Gustavo seems worried by Nathan's idea?

Answer: Gustavo is worried because he knows that his claim is a lie. I like to include this question because it helps students invest themselves in their investigation of persuasive techniques. By acknowledging that Gustavo isn't telling the truth when he says that his burgers are 'the best', or that he can't possibly know that, we're encouraging students to be more critical in their thinking. Question everything!

Question 4: How were Nathan and Gustavo able to attract so many customers to Gustavo's burger business?

Answer: Nathan and Gustavo make an appearance on radio so that they can promote Nathan's idea to a wide audience. The use of a famous radio station to spread a message has undertones of ethos.

Question 5: Why does Nathan say to one customer, "Do you want $100 or an Academy Award?" What kind of language technique is this?

Answer: Nathan is using hyperbole to point out that the customer is overacting. Hopefully your students are aware of the Academy Awards' status as the most prestigious film acting awards, otherwise you can make it clear that the cultural allusion to famous actors is intended to sarcastically draw attention to the customer's performance. The extreme exaggeration in Nathan's comparison alludes to an opinion that the customer is acting when they spit the burger out and, therefore, lying about it not being 'the best'.

Question 6: Why does Nathan bring holy books for customers to swear on? What form of persuasion is he using?

Answer: Nathan is attempting to use the holy books as a way to discourage customers from lying. The Bible, Koran, Torah, etc. are authoritative texts in that millions of people consider them to be the literal word of God. This is therefore a form of ethos.

Question 7: What form of persuasion is Nathan using on the young couple when he talks about firing Raquel?

Answer: The form of persuasion used here is pathos. This is evident in the way that Nathan manipulates the young couple into feeling bad about the impact of their actions upon the staff of the burger restaurant. By making them feel guilty he persuades them into not taking the money.

The questions above are included on this worksheet here. Also included is a paragraph-writing activity concerning one of Gustavo's burgers, in which students must take a position on the burger and use persuasive techniques of their own to convince the reader to agree.