Rhetoric Analysis Ludwick Marishane’s Ted Talk Ludwick Marishane is popularly known for his innovation of “A bath without water”. During his presentation on Ted Talks, he makes fun of how he had come up with the idea when sunbathing with his friends in Limpopo, South Africa. By just not wanting to take a bath, he was able to come up with the formula for a dry bath lotion. This innovation has been recognized worldwide and he was named “best student entrepreneur in the world” (Marishane). His innovation did not only save his problems but would be a great solution for millions of people living in areas with a scarcity of water. This essay will analyze how Marishane uses story-telling to motivate, inspire, and persuade his audience. The speaker, …show more content…
The first group is the sit audience from Ted Talks. The second group is the general audience that watches the talks on the web. The sit-in audience is mainly composed of middle-aged intellectuals who support the Ted Talks. The general audience refers to all those who can access the internet and watch the Ted Talks. Marishane chooses to be informal and refrains from using technical words which makes him appeal to both groups. He explains to his audience that many people throughout the world cannot access water and sanitation on regular basis and this helps him to create a common ground with his audience. The story arouses a feeling of sadness which forms the common ground between the speaker and the audience. This emotional effect also makes the audience to realize how much impact the product will have on the lives of the millions of people living in areas with a scarcity of water. Marishane explains his reason for innovating the product by stating, “Okay, even if I’m not just doing it for myself and the fact that I don’t want to bathe, I at least need to do it to try to save the world” (Marishane). It is common to see people admiring the efforts of others to save the world, and here we see Marishane innovating a formula that offers a possible solution to millions of people throughout the …show more content…
The emotional appeal that Marishane creates motivates the audience to take action, in this case, to purchase or support his product. Marishane further supports his idea of the ‘DryBath’ by stating, “we are actually now on the verge of selling the product on a multinational ta take it to retail market” (Marishane). With this words, Marishane is able to successfully market his product by notifying the audience that his product will be available for them to buy. This can be viewed as a clever way of marketing his product without creating the impression of a pushy salesperson. The speaker consistently reminds his audience that his achievement was as a result of him not wanting to take a bath. By doing so, Marishane appeals to his audience’s logic by making them realize how simple being innovative can be. He states, “one thing that really puzzles me is, I did all of this just because I didn’t want to bathe” (Marishane). Marishane also uses story-telling to appeal to his audience’s logic when starts the talk by narrating his experience with his friends while