BCSPCA Commercial Analysis

BCSPCA Commercial stands for British Colombia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals it includes pictures of animals that need shelter or a person that will give them love. Well a best known for describing this commercial is that these animals are in need of a home. These animals have been abused, left out in the streets, and many other things. This commercial shows the right amount of Logos, Ethos, and Pathos it can reach out to many.

The first appeal is shown by using logos to give the viewers reasoning to give some donations to animals that are in need of a home. Logos is an appeal to an audience basic on logic or reason. During the opening scenes of the commercial, words flash on and off the screen in between the videos and pictures of abused animals. The first part of the commercial “Every single hour in BC an animal is violently abused” (Sarah McLachlan SPCA, n.d.). This commercial had Sarah McLachlan, a famous singer; she was a supporter for this organization. This

commercial is not trying to sell a product by trying to get some cents for these animals. This commercial first aired in 2006. There are many locations where you can adopt an animal.

The second appeal is as far establishing ethos within the commercial. BCSPCA is the organization backing the commercial. The organization credentials are almost as good. It is basically a non- profit organization that accepts donations. It even provides governance structure and annual costs and donations on their page HYPERLINK "http://www.betheanswer.ca/" http://www.betheanswer.ca/ and Sarah McLachlan was their spokesperson in this commercial. Her credibility is established as you see her putting her credentials and reputation, and as a public figure, both of these thing be held as a priority. You also see that she is on the couch petting her dog. This is a very honest and transparent way of handling and broadcasting the organizations resources. Reaching out to people looking to donate money can be sure that it goes to a worthy cause.

The Last appeal about using pathos in this commercial Ad is clearly emotional.

What a good way to urge viewers to donate money than by showing in the commercial pictures of sorry looking animals? The type of objects they use are cages, crates, and the animals. It targets any animal or anybody in reality because they can see that these animals are in need of help, also that these animals have been abused. This commercial has demographic is an extremely important factor in commercial productions, the fact that so many different people are susceptible to the pathos of the commercial to the point of tears. This commercial had a use of music and it also plays an important role in the use of pathos. The song “In the arms of an Angel” by Sarah MacLauchlan has a part that makes me sad every time I seen the commercial “There always some reason, to feel not good enough” (Sarah McLachlan SPCA, n.d.) and this is sad because these animals don’t feel good enough and you can tell by their

eyes.

In conclusion, overall this commercial does an amazing job of using ethos, paths, and logos to persuade viewers and state a point. However, pathos it is very strong visual and audio aids. The advertisement is so powerful that some people cannot even watch it without feeling some sense of guilt or sadness. Everything from the imagery of the injured animals, to the statistics of animals abused and saved to, Sarah McLachlan’s song “Angel” to her appealing to the audience herself, combine to make this one of the most influence commercial till today. This commercial works very well. It was able to reach out to as many different types of people all over the world as it was shown on YouTube.