PETA: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Advertising

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Everyday people see advertisements, whether it is displayed on commercials, radio stations or even in magazines. With high competition always submerging in the advertising world, companies are willing to do anything to catch an audience’s attention. One such company is PETA, People for the Ethical Treatments of Animals (PETA) is a nonprofit corporation that is worldly known for their “risky” publications to convey their message. In this campaign image, PETA is trying to argue against the production of meats by dehumanizing model, Traci Bingham, as an animal, using pathos to reach guilt of the viewers and presenting the slogan “ALL ANIMALS HAVE THE SAME PARTS”. In this ad, PETA displays the model, Bingham, as being almost animal-like. …show more content…

PETA’s genre was a commercial that was originally supposed to be launch during the Super Bowl but was “too hot” to be distributed. This was a perfect timing because millions of people (targeted audiences of men and young teenagers) could see the advertisement, which this is karios. PETA uses the power of female sexuality by displaying the beautiful Bingham’s body in order to attract their targeted audiences, which ties in with ethos. But people were outraged because of how sexual the ad was. In response to this reaction, PETA’s College Campaign Coordinator, Ryan Huling stated, “Our ‘naked’ demonstrators and models chose to participate... We believe that people should have the choice to use their own bodies to make social statements, and that there is nothing shameful or ‘wrong’ about being naked…” (Gregory). This quote emphasizes the reason why PETA chose to portray Bingham sexually. Although it was vulgar in the eyes of critiques, one can understand why PETA chose to create this “risky ad” to entice the audience’s attention because sex sells. By utilizing sexuality, pathos is being clearly used. On the other hand, for general females in western society, not only is PETA dehumanizing Bingham as a person, but for women as

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