Comparing Jonathan Burton's 'Yes Mum' And Its Consequences

In the video “Yes Mum”, Jonathan Burton shows a young college students death. The driver (Andrew) and four other friends are drowning. Andrew appeared to be the designated driver but was distracted by the partying and loud music blaring in the background. Him and his friends were taking pictures, eating, and drinking, Andrew got distracted and went off the road. Andrew knows that he is going to die and decides to call his mom for the last time. Andrew tells his mom that he loves her and it shows his process of saying goodbye. Finally, the film end with five of them drowning. This ad is effective because it demonstrates shortness of life and the consequences of drinking and driving.
The author wants to demonstrate awareness of the consequences of drinking and driving. Jonathan Burton created this film for

“Make a Film, Make a Difference” or MAFMAD for short.

MAFMAD is a competition intended for people 25 years or younger to make a short film with the theme “Your Mates Life is in Your Hands,” and to encourage teenagers to speak up when they feel unsafe. Speaking up can save the life of their friends and themselves and prevent the situation Burton created. Burton is a regular person that wanted to make a difference in preventing these types of deaths. Jonathan Burton’s ad successfully makes a case against drinking and driving through strong rhetoric and by making use of the window effect to connect to the target audience, teenagers.
This ad targets teenagers that can drive. In 0:12 - 0:21 the ad is showing a group of teenagers, Andrews and friends, having a party in the car. This part of the advertisement is showing the target audience because teenagers are in the advertisement. Once kids go to high school, the social group is more defined than

any school level. The fact that the “cool” kids attend parties this will make other students want to attend parties because they want to be as “cool” as them. High school is also the age when teenagers started driving. Car is also very convenient, it’s private and a transportable device. The ad illustrates the teenagers eating, drinking and playing loud music throughout the whole entire advertisement. It shows the teenagers eating at 0:41, drinking at 0:21 and playing loud music starting at 0:12. These are stereotypical teenager activities. This relates to teenagers because the target audience, young drivers, would be able to see themselves in the ad. In the ad, no one is the responsible one. Andrew is the designated driver, that’s why he wasn’t drinking, but he was distracted by his friends. At 0:46 it was shown that Andrew’s friend was feeding him pizza while Andrew was driving, at 0:48 Andrew was reaching back for his friend in the backseat, at 0:59 Andrew’s friend was taking a picture of him with flash. All of these are actions that are distracting to the driver. Even though it’s common sense to look at it from an outside perspective, sometimes teenagers need some more reminding that what they are doing are very stupid. Partying is also an “escape” of reality, though a very stupid one. It helps them forget how much life is stressing them out. This advertisement is successful because this advertisement target audience is teenagers.
The purpose of this advertisement is to make people aware of the severity and consequences for drinking and driving. When the car was sinking into the body of the water and everyone in the car was screaming and panicking, starting at 1:29 – 1:46. This tells the audience to not drink and drive. If people really like drinking, they could also just ask for a taxi or someone else to be the designated driver, it’s not that hard. Even if they have a designated driver, they shouldn’t bother the person driving at all. Driving requires a lot of concentration. No one wants to leave this world with regrets. Andrew’s friends weren’t even aware of what is happening with them, at 0:31, Andrew was on the phone with his mom to say “I love you” for the last time, while his friends were still partying. The statistics of drinking and driving is three out of ten of traffic accident. When people look at the statistics of anything, they seem to always think it won’t apply to them. An example of this, a statistic of DUI accident is three out of ten, and everyone seems to think that they won’t get into a DUI accident until they got it. This ad was really effective, because it brings awareness to drinking and driving consequences up to and including death.
The ad has strong pathos, ethos and logos. This advertisement focused on feelings a lot. In the advertisement, there are a lot of scenes that can tug at people’s heart strings, such as, Andrew started tearing up at 1:10 after asking for his dad on the phone. People’s emotion can be moved by something that hit close to home, for instance, family. The advertisement also showed when the mother was frantic, worrying about his son, at 1:22. When people imagine their parents desperately worrying about them can also cause emotion to move. In the video, Andrew, is leaving a lot of things, including his family as he is talking to his mom. Andrew knows this, that is why he called his family for the last time, this scene is shown at 0:09. This is something that everyone can imagine and this is why the advertisement successfully moves people to tears. This ad also focused on ethos. The moral of this ad is to not drink and drive, at the end of the ad, everyone ended up drowning at 1:39. The advertisement also had good logos. It is common sense that there will be consequences in drinking and driving, even though it might not be as severe. All in all, the whole advertisement as a whole, really has good rhetoric to make this advertisement a success.
Jonathan Burton, the winner of MAFMAD competition in the year 2012, successfully makes an advertisement against driving under the influence. This advertisement is sending a message for young drivers to not drink and drive. Also, this advertisement tells the target audience that there are consequences against drinking and driving. This argument matters because this advertisement tells a life lesson. Always take a moment to think before doing something irresponsible, especially when it affects yours and other people’s lives.