Rhetorical Advertisement Analysis Essay

Teen pregnancy is one of the most serious issues in the American society. Three in ten teen young women get pregnant before their twenties. We have heard about the bad consequences of teen pregnancy in movies, talk shows, news, and many other social media. The Candies Foundation Organization is a non-profit organization that tries change the way youth in America thinks about teen pregnancy and parenthood. This organization decided to use advertisements to persuade teenagers to consider the consequences of having a baby. Therefore, I chose an advertisement from this organization. And I am here to tell you that this advertisement is so powerful that it is likely to reach its intended audience. The advertisement is composed of two parts equally. On the left side, it is a portrait of a female celebrity with a serious facial expression. On the right side, it is a question written in large font with a small text and an image of a crib below it. The question is: â€Å"Not really the way you pictured your first crib, huh?† The crib has a simple design. The advertisement is basically black and white with a touch of a hot pink color. This color only appears in the name of the organization, which is at the bottom of the portrait, and parts of the question. The rhetorical appeals are included in the advertisement to persuade the audience to think about whether or not they are ready to have a baby. The Candies Foundation Organization uses pathos to appeal to both women and man’s emotions and gain further support for their foundation. It uses sex and emotional appeals and made the advertisement engaging not only to men, but also to women. It uses a more mainstream and modern sex appeal to send the message to its intended audience. There are few advertisements that include a portrait of a female celebrity in them. However, this organization used the advantage that celebrities draw audience’s attention. It used a celebrity called Fergie, who is a well-known singer and actress in the modern days. In fact, the portrait successfully made the ad to appeal only to teenagers. While the portrait is attention catching by taking up half of the advertisement, the organization simply used the celebrity’s facial expression as an emotional appeal. The celebrity’s face is made more beautiful with a touch of make-up focusing on the eyes. The advertisement gains more attention with this portrait for the simple fact that the celebrity is looking straight at the audience. However, the celebrity is not smiling or staring at the audience. It is only a conventional look, in fact, the one that people give when they are talking to someone. It is this look and the emotion she lacks, that creates a strong feeling in the audience. It is also this look that attracts perfectly the audience’s full attention for the advertisement. The celebrity, a female, to the point, adds credibility to the advertisement because a female voice has more strength than a male’s in this situation. Men are always interested in their opposite sex. Women always have the feelings of jealousy and insecurity. Furthermore, the organization effectively opens the advertisement for all genders by using a female celebrity. Now, the advertisement not only attracts teen girls’ attention, but also boys. The organization also uses ethos to appeal a personality in the message. The combination of colors adds a special effect to the advertisement, making it much easier for the audience to relate the portrait with the text. Since the celebrity’s picture is gray and white, it mirrors the question perfectly. As soon as the picture captures the audience’s attention, the attractive color automatically pulls the attention toward the question. The contrast of the colors used in this advertisement effectively brings out the advertisement’s own style. It uses a hot-pink color and white for the question and a dark black color as background. Hot-pink color lover or not, the style surely catches the attention of everybody. The white color also stands out in the dark black background, highlighting the question and giving it more importance. An image of a baby’s crib also lies right below the question, which adds more credibility to the advertisement. The organization is not using an image of a decorative crib in this situation. In fact, it uses an image of a traditional crib. It made the crib look simple, original, and plain, in order to appeal to teenagers rather than adults. I consider that the organization assumes that having an image of a crib in the advertisement will lead the audience to realize the message in depth. Therefore, I consider that they are correct with their assumptions. The crib image does make the question more thoughtful and it encourages teenagers to think seriously about the difficulties of having a child. Unlike other advertisements, the Candies Foundation uses a single question to deliver their message. â€Å"Not really the way you pictured your first crib, huh?† By using logos, this advertisement leads the audience to question themselves about their sexual decisions. The slang word, â€Å"crib†, has a double meaning of â€Å"home† and â€Å"baby’s crib†. The exclamation, huh, has a strong sense of interrogation. The combination of these two words gives a better expression and power to the question. Because the advertisement is targeting teenagers instead of adults, the word huh precisely adds credibility to the question. Using logos and ethos, the question is being asked properly along with an image of a baby crib that strikes fear into the audience. After the audience read the question, automatically they start thinking about few general propositions such as: Do I want to give a home like this one for my baby? Can I afford all the expenses of having a baby? Do I have a permanent job? Am I old enough? Am I ready to be a mother? Am I ready to be a father? Do I really want a baby at all? Without doubt, they will answer: NO. The organization did not ask the audience these questions directly nor gave any quantitative facts about babies. However, it used logos to make its audience reason logically and then the audience themselves can draw a specific truth from the propositions they have made. After the audience had thought about the question, they inevitably agree with the truth that the advertisement carries. In conclusion, this advertisement is effective. It is strong, meaningful, and attractive at the same time. The rhetorical appeals included have successfully persuaded its intended audience to prevent teen pregnancy. The great combination of pathos, ethos, and logos that the organization used in this advertisement builds a positive thought that will stay in the audience’s mind for a long time. This thought deeply discourages teenagers to have sex. This thought can also be a motivation for parents to advise their children and furthermore, the organization gains more outside supports to decrease teen pregnancy growth.