Rhetorical and Visual Analysis of the Humane Society of the United States
Silent Victims Commercial
Megan Bracken
University of Texas at El Paso
Abstract
The Humane Society of the United States goal is to create awareness about animal abuse and what can be done to prevent it. The Humane Society uses many genres to promote awareness but the most recognized is commercials. They have had several commercials such as their commercial Silent Victims that involves informing the audience through text and visuals. Wendie Malick stars in the commercial and speaks about animal abuse and how we can help. In this paper I will analyze the text and visuals of these commercials by comparing the methods of appeal: pathos, logos, and ethos.
Rhetorical and Visual Analysis of the Humane Society of the United States
Silent Victims Commercial
In today’s society there are a rising number of issues that need to be addressed. In order to inform people about these matters genres such as posters, articles, ads and commercials are used to promote awareness. The Humane Society tries to increase understanding of the growing problem of animal abuse. One commercial really stands out and does exactly this. This commercial is entitled silent victims. By combining text with visuals the Humane Society creates a compelling commercial that will have viewers stop and take a moment to consider this disturbing issue.
Text can be a very powerful thing and evoke certain emotions in people. In the Humane Society commercial text is a major factor in attracting the audience. The author of this commercial seems to have a clear understanding of the suffering of these abused animals. Perhaps they are even a worker at the Humane Society in the United States. The author uses words to better portray the animal’s feelings and to hopefully raise awareness of the growing problem of animal abuse. In this particular commercial the text gives a voice to the animals. “What did I do wrong?”, “Why did they hurt me?”, “Why did they abandon me?”, “Will I die today?”, “Won’t you help me?” are all questions the author assumes the animals might want to ask. Highlighting key words such as “wrong”, “hurt”, “abandon”, “die”, and “help” make one stop and consider the severity of animal abuse. The color in which this words are highlighted can be significant. Wrong, hurt, and die are highlighted in red so perhaps this signifies the greater problems of animal abuse. Some people fail to understand how wrong animal abuse and it can often lead to horrible things such as the animals getting hurt or possibly even dying. These words are used as ethos. They help the viewer understand the ethics behind animal abuse. It makes one consider if hurting or abandoning animals is morally right. These highlighted words are also a type of emotional appeal. They often bring out emotions in the viewers such as pity and sorrow. These feelings are sometimes turned into actions of kindness. People who feel sorry for these animals and wish to help can make donations at the Humane Society’s website. This is one of the goals of this commercial so in this case using pathos is a good idea. In a way these few questions can be seen as logical appeal. It is reasonable to consider why someone could do such a thing as hurt or abandon these animals. Logic tells us it is wrong to abuse animals.
Another crucial aspect of this commercial is the visuals. Dogs with eyes full of sadness, a cat with a swollen eye and a large amount of dogs crammed in one small crate are only a few of the images seen in this commercial. The close up of these animals can greatly impact someone. You can almost hear the animals crying out for help through their sad and painful expressions. Observing actual cases of abused animals makes it is easier to believe that this is a serious problem that is occurring in our world today. These images cause more emotions to arise and the commercial becomes twice as effective. These visuals are also a form of ethos. We can see cases of abused animals that to some people would seem unethical. In fact the image of many dogs sharing a single small cage portrays what is potentially happening in puppy mills. People don’t understand the living conditions these dogs have had to deal with before they are rescued or adopted. Another major part of the visual is the speaker Wendie Malick. She speaks on behalf of the Humane Society of the United States. The information she provides about the animals is logical. She states “they can’t speak up to fight back against animal abuse but you can”. It is logical that animals can’t communicate and fight for their rights so we must speak on their behalf in order to protect them. This is why the commercial is called Silent Victims because over and over these animals suffer because they can’t speak up for themselves. Malick also talks about how you can save a life of an animal by making a donation. This is logical because your donation can provide food or medical care for animals that need this help.
This commercial unites the text and visuals in an efficient way. Combining the words with the visuals makes it seem as if the animals are directly speaking to you. For example in the beginning of the commercial a sad dog turns his head towards the camera as the words “What did I do wrong?” appear. This effectively showcases the animal’s emotions. Without the visuals or the texts the commercial would probably not be as impacting. The text improves the visuals and vice versa. The text alone lets us hear the animal’s thoughts but without the visuals to back the text up it is hard to imagine the true emotions of these abused animals. It is logical to think that animals can’t talk so by using text people can gain insight to the possible thoughts of these abused, abandoned and hurt animals. Since the visual and the text complement each other it is hard to determine whether the author meant for the text or the visual to be the main focus. However, since the visual includes a speaker there is more information covered that the text fails to cover.
Commercials are a useful way to increase awareness about a problem. The Humane Society of the United States proves this in their commercial for abused animals. They efficiently used both visuals and text to create a powerful commercial that arouses emotions in people. This commercial also uses all three methods of appeal. They use pathos, emotional appeal, to get the audience to feel sorry for these animals. Ethos, ethical appeal, is used to get people thinking about what treatment towards animals is morally right. Logos, logical appeal, is self explanatory it lets people understand what is happening and why logically it is wrong.
Works Cited
Silent Victims: HSUS TV Ad with Wendie Malick
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1Xh-tZrzwk
