Visual Rhetori

cBy: Shelby

Wood

Background Information• PETA stands for People

for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Having more than 3 million members, it is the largest animal rights organization in the world.

• PETA focuses its attention on four main areas in which the largest number of animals suffer: on factory farms, in the clothing industry, in laboratories, and in the entertainment industry.

What is the purpose of this ad?

• PETA used this as to try to turn people against using animals just for their fur. Also, it is to show people how using just the fur of animals affects the animal and that animal cruelty should be eliminated.

Who is the intended audience?

•The intended audience is people who wear/buy fur coats. PETA is trying to show the consumers of fur coats what they are doing to the animal in which the fur comes from.

What is the focal point of this ad?

•The focal point of this ad is the dead animal. It draws your attention because it is graphic and gruesome. PETA probably made this the focal point because it is the main purpose of the ad.

Why did the author choose, “FUR COAT,” to be in red font?

•The author probably did this because it matches the skinned animal’s body. They also might have did this because red represents blood, and the animal is dead. In my mind, the color red goes with the word dead.

If you eliminate the text, does it change the ad’s meaning?

•Yes. The ad is then just a picture of a woman holding a dead animal. The ad doesn’t make sense anymore because you aren’t able to tell what purpose the woman has for holding the dead animal.

What is the ethical appeal?

•The PETA logo in the lower right hand side of the ad gives it credibility. With PETA being the largest animal rights organization in the world, it also gains credibility.

What is the logical appeal?

•Animals shouldn’t be killed just for their fur. It is cruel to them because they lost their life just so someone could have a coat made out of real fur when they could have bought a coat that looked just like that without killing an animal.

What is the emotional appeal?

•The ad makes you feel sympathy for the animal because it lost its life just for its fur. It also gives of the emotion of disgust because of the graphic nature of the skinned animal.

PETA, . Here's the Rest of Your Fur Coat. 2012. Photograph. PETA.com, Norfolk. Web. 12 Oct 2012.