Visual Rhetoric Analysis
Haley Seay
Ms. Tracey Thornton
ENC 1101 Visual Rhetoric Analysis
2 October 2012
Advertisements are the most commonly used way to sell and market a product or message. Although we may not realize it while watching or seeing the advertisement, there are many underlying factors that cause us to buy into the advertisement. Whether it may be the color, picture, text, or sound; the advertisers find a way to draw us in without even a second thought. Many advertisers focus on guilt, they try to find a soft spot with in us by showing us those that are less fortunate than us. “Don’t you feel bad that you are so fortunate and these people are living like this? Give to them, help them, give up your luxuries, and share with them.” This is the message that many companies and organizations are trying to convey when they post advertisements showing people in third world countries struggling. Cordaids advertisements are making big spenders in America feel guilty in order to help their cause of helping the less fortunate in third world countries. In this advertisement a foundation called Cordaid is trying to show how our money being spent on luxuries in America can benefit those in third world countries. This specific advertisement shows a skinny almost malnourished looking person lying on the ground in a third world country. Their race is black and they are wearing dirty torn up clothing that looks like rags just tied around them. What is in the persons hand though? In one advertisement they are holding a leather purse, in another Versace sunglasses, a bottle of aftershave, and in another a pint of beer. They are showing us
Seay 2
What we spend our money on; what our casual luxuries that we buy without even thinking are. Underneath the labels of those luxuries, are necessities for people in these third world countries that we could buy for the same price or cheaper. What do we all think when we see advertisements like these? "How could I be so selfish?", "Those
Ms. Tracey Thornton
ENC 1101 Visual Rhetoric Analysis
2 October 2012
Advertisements are the most commonly used way to sell and market a product or message. Although we may not realize it while watching or seeing the advertisement, there are many underlying factors that cause us to buy into the advertisement. Whether it may be the color, picture, text, or sound; the advertisers find a way to draw us in without even a second thought. Many advertisers focus on guilt, they try to find a soft spot with in us by showing us those that are less fortunate than us. “Don’t you feel bad that you are so fortunate and these people are living like this? Give to them, help them, give up your luxuries, and share with them.” This is the message that many companies and organizations are trying to convey when they post advertisements showing people in third world countries struggling. Cordaids advertisements are making big spenders in America feel guilty in order to help their cause of helping the less fortunate in third world countries. In this advertisement a foundation called Cordaid is trying to show how our money being spent on luxuries in America can benefit those in third world countries. This specific advertisement shows a skinny almost malnourished looking person lying on the ground in a third world country. Their race is black and they are wearing dirty torn up clothing that looks like rags just tied around them. What is in the persons hand though? In one advertisement they are holding a leather purse, in another Versace sunglasses, a bottle of aftershave, and in another a pint of beer. They are showing us
Seay 2
What we spend our money on; what our casual luxuries that we buy without even thinking are. Underneath the labels of those luxuries, are necessities for people in these third world countries that we could buy for the same price or cheaper. What do we all think when we see advertisements like these? "How could I be so selfish?", "Those