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The Effectiveness of ASPCA's Commercial Essay

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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 …show more content…

While those clips are being shown, the song ‘In the Arms of an Angel’ by Sarah McLachlan is being played in the background. Slides with different statistics are being shown as well. The song “In the Arms of an Angel” is the major aspect of the commercial that really sets the tone. The tone of the song is depressing and gloomy but grabs the attention of the audience at the same time. The main point of the commercial is to convince the audience to “be an angel”, by saving the abused animals dying in the shelters. The song used is a perfect tool to convince the audience to be an angel and help the animals. Even though the music is a large part of setting the tone, the clips and pictures are equally as moving. Showing pictures of abused and suffering animals is a great way to get the audience’s attention and cause them to become sympathetic to the animals. Very few people in the world are unfazed when they see a video or picture of a helpless and suffering dog or cat. I looked at a lot of the related videos on YouTube and many of them are reaction videos. The videos show the audience’s reaction to the commercial. In more than 99 percent of the videos that I saw the viewer is in tears at the end. If a commercial that brings the audience to tears is not a perfect example of pathos then I don’t know what is.
After showing a variety of different clips that represents the pain and suffering that

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