ASPCA Rhetorical Essay

Envisage yourself coming home from an eight-hour shift at work. You feel as if relaxing is a necessity, so you turn on the television to your favorite local news station to catch up on the exposé that all of your co-workers previously knew. While the news was on temporary break, a flamboyant commercial begins to play and once it stops playing, you can’t stop pondering the organization that displayed the indirect advertisement. That commercial enveloped you as a part of its audience. Commercials differ when deciding what rhetorical tools would manipulate their audience to succeed in unveiling their message, and this American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) commercial, created by the organization’s creative director, uses

pathos and logos to manipulate the intended audience and reveal the purpose of gathering donations to benefit the organization as a whole.

As soon as the commercial began, the audience was faced with an attack on their pathos, or feelings. The creative director started the attack with setting the tone and mood of the commercial. The ASPCA manipulates their audience by using a sorrowful song that plays in the background of the commercial. Along with the song that is played in the background, there was what seems to be a member of the ASPCA talking over the video clips of the abused animals. This member uses overstatement to further the effects of the commercial’s use of pathos, by giving the audience a mournful picture of how many animals throughout the world are being mistreated and abused, and all these animals could be brought into protection with the monetary help from the audience watching. The woman’s tone correlates with the sorrowful nature of the music, both setting the despairing mood of the commercial. In addition to the music and the ASPCA member’s voice in the background of the commercial, the setting of the first video clip of the dog sitting all alone in its desolate makeshift house while it’s snowing strikes the audience’s emotions once more. The last way the audience’s pathos is manipulated can be entirely credited to the creative director. The creative director decided to use special effects to enhance the ostentatious display of the abuse that these animals had faced. The addition of not only the slow-mo effect but the continuous repetition of the animals looking into the camera amplifies the way the audience is supposed to feel about the current situation these animals are in. Which in return, manipulates the audience’s pathos enough into looking further into the ASPCA Organization to try and help animals from being abused.

Correspondingly, the way that this commercial shows the conditions of the animals attacks the audience’s pathos once again. When the camera motions to the dogs and cats in their cages, some of the dogs, and even the petite kitten, are shown with casts on their leg. The fact that animals are shown with casts on their legs lets their audience realize that the dogs are actually injured from someone or something abusing them. That simple, but unpleasant detail could spark a personal experience that someone watching the commercial could have, and that could be their reason to support the cause that the ASPCA is trying to support. Other dogs are shown as being abnormally skinny or are shaking uncontrollably. These visible details imply that the animals revealed have been segregated, by their owner’s choice, and left to feel the effects of solitary confinement. Each of these details, the cast, the abnormal skinniness, and the uncontrollable shaking, broadens the effect of the use of pathos throughout the entirety of the commercial.

Furthermore, the creative director used logos to add a sense of credibility to the ASPCA Organization. Towards the end of the commercial, the official ASPCA logo, phone number, and website were exhibited. Also, alongside these credits, four pictures of credit/debit card companies were shown to symbolize that donations were vastly accepted. Equally, the website in the commercial entitled, “JoinASPCA.org” exemplifies the organization’s attempts to bring in an audience that will be willing to join the ASPCA and donate to the cause they are trying to bring recognition to. Once more, the fact that the commercial includes not just a phone number, but also a website, gives the ASPCA more credibility than if the commercial just had a phone number, because the audience can further their understanding of the organization in case they would like more information to validate their want to donate to the foundation. Also, the fact that the commercial has a website that ends in “.org” instead of “.com” is just another way that the ASPCA tries appealing to the audience’s logic. On the other hand, one aspect of the appeal to logic that this ASPCA commercial uses, as well as many other ASPCA commercials, includes a number that begins with “1-888”. Many people believe that these numbers are unpredictable and also could be classified as scams, so they won’t want any type of affiliation with these organizations. In this case, the logos at the end of the commercial could serve as a positive or a negative rhetorical device.

Ultimately, the ASPCA Organization’s main purpose is to manipulate their intended audience to spread the word about how donating to their cause will bring and support all of the animals that are being abused each and every day into the arms of the ASPCA.

The manipulative nature of the commercial targets adults with some sentimental connection towards animals. With the incorporation of logos directed towards the payment via credit or debit cards, directs the audience to be adults solely because someone has to be at least eighteen years old to own a credit or debit card, and that person has to have some sort of revenue to consistently donate to the ASPCA Organization as promoted. Similarly, the addition of pathos directs the audience to be older generations because that audience would be wise enough to understand the problem, from personal or impersonal experiences, of abused animals that are tormented and left to fend for themselves for the rest of their lives. To reiterate, this ASPCA commercial uses rhetorical tools such as pathos and logos to manipulate the intended audience, adults with some sentimental connection to animals, and reveal the underlying purpose of gathering donations to benefit the organization’s

cause.