Rhetoric Ad Analysis

Gloria Ho

Professor Breech

English 120_L13

10 October 2014

Ad Analysis: Use of Rhetoric in WWF Ads

Rhetorical devices play a crucial role in a successful advertisement. By appealing to the emotions, logic, and mentality of the masses along with making use of the time, place, and audience the majority of commercials wield the elements of rhetoric: pathos, logos, ethos, and kairos. This can be seen in animal conservation advertisements particularly ones from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), one of the largest conservation organizations that is often known for its impactful and memorable animal conservation ads. The organization seeks to bring awareness and receive aid in their mission to maintain the health of the environment and protect endangered species from extinction. Both are persisting issues that continue to worsen day by day; thousands of species become extinct every year and the biodiversity of our planet has dropped significantly which directly translates to well-being of this Earth. However, the public awareness of these issues has greatly increased with the help of organizations such as WWF, which engages people about the issue through the use of rhetoric in their advertising.

One WWF campaign that makes use of rhetorical devices is titled “Extinction Can’t Be Fixed.” This print ad shows an image of a rhinoceros and two men; one man is under the rhinoceros with mechanical tools and gloves beside his feet, while the other man is bent over, observing the rhino. The background of this image appears to be in a garage or car maintenance shop with concrete floors, metal shelves against the walls, and desks filled with more tools. There is not much color to the ad besides the red and blue work uniforms worn by the two men. The lighting of the image shines brighter in the center where the rhino stands. Throughout this ad, there are many uses of rhetoric and visual details in order to convey its message. First off, the use of pathos is shown in the title through the word “extinction” which brings to mind annihilation, death, and disappearance of an entire species, unlike a related word “endangered” which surfaces words such as limited or finite while implying a possibility of recovery. The word “extinction” is able to appeal to the sympathy and compassion of the audience while implanting a sense of fear, helplessness, and, possibly, urgency in others because of how impactful and terminal the word is. Logos is also shown in the image where the rhino is standing amongst metal, tools, and other man made objects as animals are supposed to belong in nature. There is an obvious feeling of displacement, and, with the two men who appear to be trying to “fix” the rhino or trying to find out what is wrong with it, the audience can quickly realize the oddity in such logic because there is no solution and no way to “fix” something that no longer exists in the world. This captures people's attention and it helps stimulate what WWF wants the public to think which is: before this issue becomes unfixable, something has to and can be done.  Ethos is also used through the WWF logo placed on the top right corner of the image. Since WWF is a reputable organization known for their work in helping endangered species and the environment, it makes the information or message being shown to the public more credible. Lastly, for the kairos in this ad, while there was no major event that occurred around the ads’ launch date, July 2013, the issue of animal extinction and endangerment is always persisting. The timing of the ad simply corresponds to a problem that is happening daily.

                                      

Another WWF campaign that uses elements of rhetoric is titled “Horrifying vs More Horrifying.” Similar to the prior ad, this one focuses on spreading awareness of animal extinction and aiding endangered animals. The campaign shows a series of three images. The first image is of the fin of a shark that is submerged in the ocean with a caption on the bottom stating “Horrifying” and besides this image is the same image, but with no shark in sight, captioned “More Horrifying.” The second image is similar to the first image but with a picture of a scorpion on a rock, captioned “Petrifying,” and next to it is the same image without the scorpion, captioned “More Petrifying.” The third image is of a vulture on a branch with a cloudy sky in the background and (just as the other two) captioned “Frightening,” and next to it is the same image without the vulture with the caption “More Frightening.” Overall, pathos is used in the choice of animals and in the diction of the captions. For all three of the images, WWF shows animals that cause people to feel horrified, petrified, and frightened (sharks, scorpions, and vultures, respectively) and are often seen as dangerous and life threatening; however, by putting these images  back to back with the same image except the deadly animal is taken out the image, the lack of life is emphasized. This impacts the audience’s emotions of fear in the way that images of fear are actually being altered or replaced with another more fearful image. Logos is also being used in the captions by conveying that while some animals are seen as dangerous and harmful, the after effects that come with losing these animals are even more harmful and not only on an individual basis but to the entire world. Ethos is used just as the prior WWF ad, where its logo is placed around the ad so that viewers who may recognize WWF from another campaign may be reassured that the ad is credible. Equivalently, kairos is not intentionally used, but there’s always time to be reminded that such issues exist in the world and are continuing to exist.
In conclusion, the use of rhetorical devices help create an effective advertisement. As shown in the two print ads, “Extinction Can’t Be Fixed” and “Horrifying vs. More Horrifying” by WWF, the organization made use of ethos, logos, pathos, and kairos in order to convey their message and spread awareness to an important issue. Both publications made use of pathos to attract the audience's sympathy and compassion, which help create an emotional connection to the issue of extinction and may cause the audience to become involved. Logos is also used to make connections that illuminate the importance and call for action to the issue, ethos and kairos help tie up the whole message by creating a sense of validity and relevancy to what is shown in the ads. Overall, rhetoric devices play an essential role to successfully spreading a message.