This ad is about the dangers of texting and driving. I chose to rhetorically analyze this ad as I heavily support its message. The message of the ad is also conveyed in a simple, creative, and unique way that I have never seen before. The ad was created by a company called Vodafone, one of the world’s largest mobile communications companies. I found this ad online at www.adsoftheworld.com, an advertising archive and community. Given the context of the ad, the intended audience includes teenagers and young adults as well as their parents. The ad appeals to a younger generation as it utilizes commonly used abbreviations among youth today. The ad also appeals to their parents as the text at the bottom right encourages the audience to “make sure you and your teenagers stay safe on the road.” In addition, ads like this one always attract the attention of parents as they are constantly worrying about the dangers out in the world that their children are exposed to on a daily basis.
This ad provokes fear as the primary emotion, nervousness and disappointment as secondary emotions, and alarm, anxiety, uneasiness, and worry as tertiary emotions. Primarily, these emotions are provoked by the words. Each word has its own shadow, giving each word its own physical form and showing that each word carries its own danger along with it when typed by the driver. Each word with its own physical form gradually leads the viewer into the other lane and eventually to the accident at the power line pole. This progression catches the viewer’s attention and adds suspense. These emotions are also provoked by the trivial nature of the text message itself. Telling a friend that you have been invited to a party isn’t worth having an accident. Finally, the absence of people, cars, and the accident makes the viewer focus completely on the words as the driver would have done in this situation. This provokes the emotions listed as it recreates the immense distraction of texting for the viewer and, consequently, brings the viewer into the experience. The absence also makes the viewer think “what if?” Since the ad works, the exclusion of other things that could have raised the pathetic appeal of this ad demonstrates that the issue itself is powerful enough to stand on its own.
The ad is mainly aiming to educate the public about the issue of texting and driving. However, the ad also inspires people to change their behavior if they text and drive and inspires parents to talk to their children if they are drivers. The ad does this through its interpretation that ties the affect to the desire behavior. For viewers, the interpretation is that they don’t want that to happen to them or their loved ones. They don’t want to endanger the lives of innocent people, and they don’t want to get in an accident. Through this ad, viewers see the severity associated with texting and driving and that the importance of safety immensely outweighs any text message.
Aristotle’s analysis of the character of the young can be applied to the ad as the ad appeals to stereotypes of the young. However, the ad does not appeal to any other classifications or symbols that resonate with certain segments of the population. Aristotle states in chapter twelve of Rhetoric that “[the young’s] hot tempers and hopeful dispositions make them more courageous than older men are; the hot temper prevents fear, and the hopeful disposition creates confidence.” This analysis can be applied to the ad as teenagers have hopeful dispositions when they text and drive. These hopeful dispositions make them confident in their abilities and courageous enough to multi-task while driving. They often think that nothing like what is depicted within this ad will ever happen to them. The “expectation of good makes [them] confident.” As I thought of my own stereotypical characteristics of the young, I thought of carelessness. Aristotle does not mention anything about carelessness in Rhetoric, but this characteristic is clearly appealed to by this ad. Teenagers are often careless when they drive as they always think they have a good handle and assessment of their driving situation.
Texting and driving can be just as dangerous as drinking and driving. Therefore, the pathetic appeal of this ad is necessary in order to impact those who do text and drive.
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