Julia Lawson
1-26-09
English 103 Section 31
Visual Rhetoric Assignment First Draft
Aristotle, an ancient Greek philosopher described rhetoric as the ability to discern the available means of persuasion in any given situation. Fundamentally, rhetoric is being able to decide what strategies will be helpful in convincing viewers to receive a particular message. The relationship between the writer, the text of the message, and the audience is known as the rhetorical situation. All three parts are essential in conveying a message to an audience. The writer has to determine how the audience will see his or her message and how he or she wants the message portrayed. Rhetoric is used in everyday life, even when many of us may not realize it. If you want to persuade someone of something, you analyze your message, tone, setting, and mood along with many other situational matters. Many of the arguments we present are reliant on the choice of text. When asking for a favor, face to face is best. When applying for a job, you send a resume through the mail. Our choices of text are very important to the art of persuasion and rhetoric.
Persuasion is also extremely dependent on visual matters as well. The way you stand, your appearance, eye contact, and grammar in your text all affect your persuasive capabilities. Alfano and O’Brien write in Envision in Depth that visual persuasion is “writing with images”. This definition is very accurate and applies to commercials, web pages, advertisements, political cartoons, and many other ways of persuasion. Even aesthetic visuals have some form of argument ingrained within them. Visual rhetoric includes strategies of persuasion existing through images either with or without limited text rather than text alone. Many advertising experts believe that the more dominant and intense the image is the better. Also, a small descriptive text is best when accompanied by a very powerful image.
The visual text that I examined was an advertisement paid for by the American Red Cross. The ad was encouraging viewers to donate blood in order to save lives. The advertisement shows a clear, plastic donation box like one you would see in a business. The box is small and has an opening at the top where money should be inserted. Above the box is a small sign that reads, “MONEY ISN’T EVERYTHING.” In a smaller font under the top line reads, “Save up to three lives without spending a cent. It takes a special someone to donate blood.” This limited amount of text is eye catching and to the point but the real point of the ad is what’s inside the donation box. The donation box is about halfway filled with blood. This is extremely catching and ties right in with the text on the sign above the box. The American Red Cross designed this ad to catch the eye of the audience with a dramatic visual then utilized the text to explain how the viewer can save lives other than through a monetary donation.
This ad by the American Red Cross uses select rhetorical strategies to convince their audience of their message to donate blood. One strategy used is example and illustration. The ad illustrates the importance of blood donation and that it doesn’t cost money to save the lives of others. The title “Money isn’t everything” speaks very loudly that the viewer can save lives without having to go into their own pockets and make a monetary donation. They can simply take some time out of their day to donate blood. Also, the ad gives an example of how viewers can help by showing the blood in the donation box. By physically showing the blood, it is clear to the audience what they can give instead of money to save lives. The ad states that three lives can be saved by one blood donation. The Red Cross’s ad also uses comparison-contrast to urge their audience to give blood. They suggest that instead of giving money, they can donate their blood. By implying that money isn’t everything, it allows the viewer to realize other ways that they can help save lives. You cannot buy blood and it is so important that people donate blood daily and the American Red Cross is trying to convey this message in their ad.
The American Red Cross uses two of the three rhetorical appeals logos and pathos in their ad. Logos is the appeal of logical or rational thought and attempts to persuade the audience through reasoning and philosophy. Logos uses statistics, facts, and definitions to persuade. The statistic used in this ad is the idea that one person donating blood one time can save three lives. Logos helps the audience to process what they are actually seeing by a factual statement or statistic and allows them to think through the persuasion to asses if they will buy into the message the Red Cross is trying to convey. Pathos is the appeal to the emotions or “the pathetic appeal”. Pathos is used by the author to put the audience into a particular emotional state that will persuade them to agree with their message. Examples of pathos are sad visuals, emotional stories, sentiments, and comic relief as well. In this particular ad, pathos is used by the image of the blood in the donation box. This tugs on the audience’s heart and forces them to realize how critical of an issue blood loss is. Pathos is the main strategy used to persuade the audience in this ad but is strongly supported by logos. The combination of using the strategies of logos and pathos is very effective for this particular ad. The audience is drawn in by the emotional aspect of the ad, and then is convinced by the logistics of the mention of saving three lives.
The American Red Cross does a good job in persuading their audience in this ad. They used both rhetorical strategies and rhetorical appeals very skillfully and make for a very convincing argument which is what the art of persuasion is all about. By capturing the audience through the appeal of ethos then sustaining their convincing argument with a bold and substantial statistic, the American Red Cross has persuaded their audience to donate blood instead of give a monetary donation to their cause.
Works Cited
Alfano, Christine L., and Alyssa J. O'Brien. Envision In Depth. 1st ed. New York: Pearson Education, Inc., 2008.
www.acorncreative.com/blog/images/redcrossad.jpg
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