The Pros And Cons Of Aspca Commercials

The impact of violence in the media is believed to cause many negative behaviors. Psychologist Anderson states that, “the evidence strongly suggests that exposure to violent video games is a causal risk factor for increased aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, and aggressive affect and for decreased empathy and prosocial behavior.”(14 Mass Murders List) This claim can be supported from previous violent acts committed by people who played violent video games. Adam Lanza committed a

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

Society has been subjected to many violent acts over the course of its history. Although violence is immoral and wrong, somehow people everyday condone and commit violence for countless reasons. Many Hollywood films glorify mindless violence to their advantage and captivate audiences through its entertaining shock value and rake large box office profits. Car chases, crashes and glorified gladiator sword fights are all familiar scenes in which violence is portrayed in an unrealistic glamorised manner.

Today violence has become an every day experience in life. Playing video games or turning on the television, and flipping through the channels at random, you will most likely stumble upon various forms of violence. Does it desensitize or help us tolerate violence? And the most controversial issue, does it cause violence?

One example that comes to mind for me is when I watch commercials, I feel as though this definitely occurs. I am a huge animal lover and activist so when I see the ASPCA commercials, every time I am so emotional and they are so hard for me to watch. Therefore, these commercials are definitely playing into my emotional reactions, specifically, wanting to stand up more to animal cruelty. I think that the ASPCA continues to present their messages int his way because they know that they will get a high emotional response from many people, and thus hopefully donate to the cause and join the fight.

Carnagey, Ander and Bushman (2007) seem to be well versed on the previous research done on the negative effects of violent media on those exposed to it. They seem

In his book, More Than a Movie: Ethics in Entertainment, F. Miguel Valenti examines nine “hot buttons” of violence – “creative elements that filmmakers use to manipulate viewers’ reactions to onscreen violence.” (99) These elements, posited by researchers conducting The National Television Violence Study (Valenti, 99) are “choice of perpetrator, choice of victim, presence of consequences, rewards and punishments, the reason for the violence, weapons, realism, use of humor, and prolonged exposure” (Valenti, 100) .

     One popular theory suggests that many murderers are the product of our violent society. Our culture tends to approve of violence and find it acceptable, even preferable, in many circumstances (Holmes and DeBurger 27): According to research done in 1970, one out of every four men and one out of every six women believed that it was appropriate for a husband to hit his wife under certain conditions (Holmes and DeBurger 33). This emphasis on violence is especially prevalent in television programs. Violence occurs in 80 percent of all prime-time shows, while cartoons,

Children tend to act more violently due over exposure to violent media. Interestingly, studies done by psychologists L. Rowell Huesmann, Leonard Eron and others show that being aggressive as a youth did not speculate that they would watch more television. This suggests that violent media portrayal is a cause rather than a consequence of aggressive people. However, later research by psychologists Douglas Gentile and Brad Bushman, suggested that media violence is just one of the many causes that inhibit rational thought. [http://www.apa.org/research/action/protect.aspx]

A violent and angry lyric filled heavy metal rock song comes on the radio as someone is driving home from work. The person begins to get into the song and the next thing they know they are feeling angry. Is that heavy metal rock song going to be the reason that person snaps and decides to rob or possibly kill someone? Most people believe that is the case and that music is to blame for violent acts that are committed. Does music really have this power to trigger people to commit violent acts or are there various underlying factors that coincide with the committing of violent acts?

The first time I watched a horror movie, I was nine years old. While all of my cousins shrieked and closed their eyes, I felt totally engaged. Will we become more violent if we watch these movies? Will we become a gore-loving, emotionally insensitive society? What is it about scary movies that we love so much? It all comes back to the Human Condition. Facing our fears, establishing our sense of normalcy, and experiencing a weird sort of fun are all solid claims that Stephen King states in his essay “Why We Crave Horror Movies.”

I am so glad someone finally said something about the ASPCA commercials, although their cause is great. The amount of air time spent on spreading awareness of their cause among other things, is ridiculously excessive. To the point, as you stated, you would turn off the television. However, ASPCA does an excellent job using their PR tools to grab the audience’s attention, they use them too well. Sounds odd right? Every Christmas my parents have my sister and I donate $10 to any organization we would like. Last year, she decided to donate the money to ASPCA. Since then, every month we receive roughly 3 magazines from them, she now regrets donating to them because of how irritating it is to have unwanted magazines sent to your house. It’s

Violent forms of media do not have a direct correlation to real life violence. Over the last decade or two violence in movies, video games, and song lyrics has been increasing at a steady pace. As such when a tragedy occurs the media and government puts those forms of media under the gun and says they are the ones to blame. The truth is violence has been an ongoing occurrence before those mediums were even invented. While violent media does have some drawbacks it does have some benefits and does not make people go out and kill each other.

A study was conducted of two groups of children who play violent video games. The group with more exposure to the games was more violent. (CNN.com) Even though some believe the violent games are an outlet for kids to let off steam, actions can be subconsciously learned, and those actions may be violent. Craig Anderson and Brad Bushman from Iowa State University, Department of Psychology, explain how repeated imagery affects the way we learn:

In the book Critique of Violence ,author Walter describes Violence as "The intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, which either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, male development, or deprivation .The violence that is portrayed in the media has been debated for decades ,and it has rose a question about how does it influence the youth?. From movies to video games society has been accustom to seeing violence in their everyday entertainment. Since children are easy to be influence by their environment, it is safe to say that violence in the media can and will contribute to violent behavior.