Visual Rhetoric Assignment

Alaina Naab-Levy

English 103 Section 31

Jin Liu

January 26, 2009

Visual Rhetoric Assignment

The “Save the Children” commercial uses illustration of poverty-ridden children and narration to invoke sympathy within the audience in order to persuade to donate money in order for these children to have a legitimate childhood. The commercial is littered with rhetorical devices. The rhetorical appeals pathos and logos are used, as well as the rhetorical strategies narration and illustration. The use of rhetorical devices in the advertisement is necessary in the creation of a valid argument.

            The commercial begins with a gunshot and children running away from the noise. This is a dramatic way to start the advertisement, and it immediately catches the viewer’s attention. Then the commercial goes on to show video clips of children from around the world in color. While this is occurring, phrases of words are running across the screen while the clips pause and turn black and white. This puts an emphasis on the image and allows the viewer to make a connection between the lingering image and the word phrase. Word phrases include “Hide and seek” and “Treasure hunt”. And the video clips include images of a child hiding behind a corner of a building, children digging through food in a market, a child holding a small infant in her arms, a child bandaging his foot up, and a child with a large gun strapped to his shoulder. The advertisement then proceeds to demonstrate how to help these children seen in the commercial. It gives a telephone number that one can call and a website one can visit to donate to this organization. The argument of the “Save the Children” commercial is set up in a problem-solution manner.  The problem is at first presented, the “endless” poverty and lack of shelter for impoverished children. Then a solution is presented, donating money to the foundation to help end poverty and provide these children with homes.

            Since the advertisement is a commercial, it heavily relies on the use of visuals. The commercial uses the rhetorical strategy illustration. It shows several clips back-to-back, of poverty-ridden children from all around the world. By using clips of children from all over the world, rather than from a single place, the commercial makes their cause more important. According to the “Save the Children” website, the organization’s proceeds go to aiding children in more than one hundred countries around the world. Using images of children from all around the world reinforces that poverty and hunger are real and are occurring in many places, affecting several groups of people. It implies that many diverse groups of people are suffering from this epidemic not just a specific group. Hunger and poverty do not target a specific group, but everyone. This is considered the use of pathos, the rhetorical device appealing to a specific emotion. These images create a feeling of compassion for these impoverished children within the audience. This use of pathos strengthens the “Save the Children” argument, making it more convincing. Several of the video clips also focus on the child’s face. This is also the use of pathos. By focusing on the children’s faces, their emotions intensified. The image of the children’s wide eyes full of pain and suffering makes the children appear more vulnerable and makes the audience feel a greater need to help them.

 Some of the clips shown in the beginning of the commercial are ironic. For example, the commercial shows a child hiding around a corner of a building with the phrase “hide and seek”. “Hide and seek” is supposed to be a game that children play when they are young, but this child is not playing a game. This helps build the argument that impoverished children are too busy worrying food and shelter to enjoy a normal childhood, including games like hide and seek. The commercial also shows a child with a large machine gun hanging from his arm with the phrase “toy soldier”. This is ironic because usually child play dress up games, like dressing up as a soldier during their childhood. But this child is fighting in a battle of some sort and is a legitimate soldier.

In addition to visual argumentation, verbal argumentation is also used. To help develop the verbal argument, narration is used. The commercial goes on to explain that the impoverished children are deprived of a real childhood and donating money can help them live a more normal life. When the commercial is showing clips of the children, phrases of words are present across the screen. This includes “hide and seek”, “toy soldier”, “treasure hunt”, and “mummies and daddies”. The commercial says “For these children, there are no fun and games, just fear, hunger, pain, and endless poverty.” This quotation helps make the argument more serious, and reinforces the need for change, and for the audience to donate to “Save the Children”. This corresponds to the phrases because it is stating that these children do not have a normal childhood ridden with fun and games. These phrases help compose the argument these children are not able to have a normal childhood because they worry about when they get their next meal where they are going to sleep for the night, not fun or games.

The commercial uses the rhetorical device logos through stating a fact in order to create credibility. The advertisement states “Three pounds a month can get food, water, and shelter to children who desperately need it.” This quotation demonstrates that donating a small about of money can be extremely beneficial to these impoverished children; it can dramatically increase their quality of life. It is uses logos because it tells a fact about where the money would go to if one were to donate to the foundation. Another example where logos is used is when the commercial gives two sources of where to contact the “Save the Children” foundation, through a website, and over the telephone. This makes the commercial makes more legitimate and increases the credibility of the argument.

The use of pathos is also makes up part of the verbal argumentation. The commercial also states “Three pounds a month can give some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable children the chance to be children again.” Another crucial quotation that further develops the argument of the “Save the Children” commercial is “Three pounds a month gives children a chance to be children again.” This is suggesting that if one donates to the foundation, they will be greatly impacting a child’s life. Donating money will take away a child’s worry of finding food and shelter and will allow them to embrace their childhood. At the end of the commercial, the speaker begs the audience to please donate to the “Save the Children” foundation. This is the use of pathos. By begging the audience to donate to aid these children, the commercial is appealing the audience’s emotions. The advertisement creates the audience to feel guilty through by stating, “we don’t think its right, if you don’t either” (that children are suffering from poverty), “please donate to the save the children foundation”. Of course the audience is not going to support the hunger and poverty epidemic prevalent throughout the world, so the commercial is insinuating that if one does not donate money, they are allowing the injustice to go on and are therefore responsible for it.

The word choice used throughout the commercial is especially valid in its argument. Word choice can greatly affect the tone of an argument. The commercial used strong words to create an argument appealing to the audience’s logos and pathos. The word choice impacted the tone of the argument by making it formal and serious. The word choice made the argument saddening, and created a sense of urgency to fix the problem. This is appropriate for this commercial because the advertisement is about a serious matter and must be formal in order to be taken seriously. The uses of the words “poorest and most vulnerable” help the audience sympathize with these children. These words insinuate that these children are in need of extreme help, and make their claim seem more urgent. The uses of the word desperately in “shelter to children who desperately need it” also build on that argument. It suggests that donating money to the foundation is absolutely necessary. When “endless poverty” is used, it implies that the severity of the poverty will not diminish. This persuades the audience to donate in order to try to end this impossible task. The commercial also creates a specific persona using word choice and an argument. The speaker has a British accent and sounds worldly in her fight to end poverty. The music played in the background of the commercial also impacted the tone of the argument. The music was saddening which corresponded with the argument and word choice.

Overall, the “Save the Children” commercial has a strong purpose. It is asking the audience to donate money to “save” these impoverished children from starving to death or dying from crime or other causes. It persuades the audience that it is necessary to donate to the foundation because these children truly need help. By donating to “Save the Children”, one can “give children a chance to be a child again”. The commercial persuades the audience to do this by using rhetorical situations and appeals.