Saturday, April 17, 2010
Week of April 11-17th Problem #1
I felt that the appeal to pity was the most interesting, probably because you see it so often in advertising now, especially with ads that are asking for money for natural disaster victims. They don’t show you that the money will be going to help rebuild schools and hospitals, or that it will provide food, water, and other supplies for those who lost everything they had. The commercials just bombard you with pictures of people bleeding, screaming, or crying. This seems especially exploitative when the pictures are of children, and strikes me as a perfect example of an appeal to pity. If these charities really are providing these types of services for those affected by disaster, then it should be easy to provide pictures as proof of this, instead of just using ones that appeal to pity. But when I see ads that just show disaster victims with sad music playing in the background, I know this is a blatant appeal to pity, instead of my reason, and it makes me less likely to want to give money.
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hey great post! i agree with what you said about all the advertisements seen now are using appeal to pity to try and attract more people to support their causes and donate even a little bit of money to help those who are in need of help. i see a lot of those types of advertisements too, but instead of making me less likely to give money, like what you feel, it actually does make me "pity" them, which is essentially what they are trying to get at. i guess it works for some people! overall, good job on the post! =)
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