The Effectiveness of ASPCA's Commercial

In 2010 the ASPCA (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) came out with a commercial that would shock the advertisement industry. The effectiveness of this commercial is proven, simply by watching the reactions of the commercial’s viewers. For those who have never seen the video it has a very sad and morose tone to it. The commercial begins with showing pictures and videos of suffering animals with the song “Angel” playing in the background. While this is going on the narrator of the commercial (Sarah McLachlen) is softly talking about the suffering and abuse that these unfortunate animals go through. Through many different rhetorical techniques the viewers are many times brought to tears after watching this commercial. When thinking of pieces of Rhetoric that demonstrates the use of pathos, the first thing I think of is this commercial. The sole purpose of this commercial is to emotionally compromise the audience until eventually the viewers will donate money to the cause. This video is so affective at completing this goal because of the way it connects to the viewers, and the way it uses many different methods to attack the viewer’s emotions.

Almost everything about the ASPCA’s commercial is specifically made to make us feel and act a certain way. Everything from the time the show is aired, what channel it is aired on, and even the kind of music playing in the background is all targeted to a specific audience. In the case of the ASPCA commercial the audience that is being targeted is fairly wide, anyone who has a soft spot for animals or seems to be sensitive in general would definitely stop and think about donating money to the cause. This commercial also had a version that aired during the holiday sea...

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..., as well as the impact that the organization has on animal abuse. For example, “Thousands were rescued last year” and, “but for thousands of others, help came too late”. These are very vague facts and have no source to back them up. This means that the audience has no proof that thousands are being saved and thousands are being killed, they just have to take the word of the ASPCA. Without proper sources when presenting facts the commercial loses some of its credibility.

For over seven years this video has been bringing its audience to tears through the use of many different methods. These methods are meant to emotionally compromise the viewers so in the end they will feel sympathetic towards that cause and eventually donate money. The effectiveness of this commercial is proven by the fact that the organization has made millions since the commercial was first aired.