Gabrielle Leisure
ENG 090 - 004
Christina Gaines 8 April 2013 Child Abuse PSA
Advertisers use a variety of appeals to convince the viewer’s to buy certain products or bring a topic to the awareness of the viewer. The anti-child abuse announcement that San Francisco Human Services Agency released is no different. A public service announcement is designed to publicize a problem the nation is facing. Advertisements can appeal to the audience through a variety of elements such as images and speech. In this advertisement pathos and ethos are represented through the sounds and visual content while logos is presented through the statistics given at the end of the advertisement. With this advertisement it is also important to consider the point human services is making as a government program that deals with protection of children and families.
A pathos argument is possibly one of the most influential arguments that can be used when attempting to gain awareness about the issue at hand. This is the reason San Francisco Human Service Agency has a very strong appeal to your emotions. A young boy flying his puppet happily in the kitchen grabs at the emotions of the audience because the boy represents innocence and how could anyone hurt something so innocent. As he continues to spin around and around he isn’t paying attention to his surroundings and accidentally knocks off a glass sitting on counter which you then hear break into a million pieces on the floor. The creator of the announcement, SFSHA (San Francisco Human Services Agency), is attempting to show viewers that this is an average child accidentally breaking something due to his lack of paying attention. Not only does the announcement appeal through imagery but also through the soft classical music playing in the background. This music portrays innocence through the soft tones from the violin playing music