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Christene Renshaw

Mrs. Griffin

English 1010

22 April 2016

Visual Analysis Log

Public Service Print Advertisement

Fig. 1 Memac Ogilvy & Mather Dubai. UN Women-Women Need To Advertisement. 2013.

Rhetorical Analysis of Public Service Announcement

Women’s fight for gender equality has existed since the beginning of time. Though

women have come a long way, the fight is not over. Memac Ogilvy and Mather Dubai created a

series of print ads to reveal the sexism and discrimination against women that still exists today in

google searches. This particular print ad campaign, known as Women Need To, was published

March 9th, 2013 by UN Women. The audience this ad is intended for is not only women, but for

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all adults in general. It effectively conveys the message that women are still battling for equality

even online.

The ad in Fig 1 is a bit simple yet powerful. It’s not colorful, which adds seriousness to

the piece. A woman’s face covers the entire background, most of her head covered in a

traditional veil known as a hijab. This helps center attention to her disappointed eyes and her

mouth. In this ad you see it’s not the “traditional” white woman. Creating a sense that the

creators wanted to focus the campaign on all different types of women. Her mouth is covered

with a familiar feature, Google’s search engine bar with suggestions hanging below it. This is the

dominant visual the search bar that is covering her mouth, strips the woman of her ability to

speak her mind; that she must do what she is told. She must do what society expects her to do

instead of being her own person. The search box reads: “Women need to” with four discriminant

suggestions all against women on how to end the sentence. “Women need to: be put in their

place, know their place, be controlled, be disciplined.” Below that in little white writing reads

“women need to be seen as equal,” a small yet impactful statement. Because even though

women have the right to vote and the right to earn a living, there is still a huge equality gap that

isn’t being recognized. Women are still expected to be the housewife; the one who cooks and

cleans for her husband. That they are expected to aspire to marriage not for jobs. Women are

told to be successful but not too successful otherwise they’ll threaten the man. There is still much

inequality amongst women that many still believe is being ignored today and this ad is trying to

bring awareness to that.

In order to present this sense of being aware of this problem, the authors used different

rhetorical appeals. First they primarily focused on Aristotle’s appeal of pathos. The audience

feels a sense of disappointment in society; that all the fights throughout the history have only

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created little change. They feel angry that this is still a relevant problem that hasn’t been fixed,

which could lead them to try to change the inequality themselves. The creators establish ethos by

United Nations (UN) Women being a famous women’s empowerment group known world-wide.

The audience can conclude that they are trustworthy and have credibility. Lastly, the authors use

logos as for the information presented is reasonable as well as accurate. These all add to the

effectiveness of the intended message of inequality amongst women still exist. Women need to

fight for their rights not just in America but all over the world.

Public Service Announcement Video

Fig 2 Directed By Deaton Flanigen. Martina Mcbride-Concrete Angel Video. 2009.

Rhetorical Analysis of Public Service Announcement Video

Music is powerful, but we will never fully understand the amount of influence it really

has on us. Deaton Flanigen certainly used that to his advantage when creating the video of

“Concrete Angel” by Martina Mcbride. This video was posted in October of 2009; although it

looked like a normal music video it had a much greater idea behind it. This video was created to

raise awareness of child abuse and effectively conveys this message. The audience this video

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was intended for was mainly parents but mostly for anybody that witnesses any sort of abuse or

falls victim to it. The creator wants child abuse to be recognized and reported, not ignored.

Flanigen uses the emotion of the lyrics that Mcbride sings as a way to emphasize the

story he is creating. The video starts with a women sitting on a bed smoking and a little girl

walking out the door with a sack lunch that we are told she made herself. The little girl is about

seven years old walking herself to school in the same dress she wore the previous day as told to

us by the lyrics. Her face hangs in a gloom as she sees another little girl hugging her mom

goodbye as they enter school. The video itself has a dark undertone as a filter creating a sad

atmosphere. It proceeds to where the little girl is sitting in class when the teacher walks by and

notices the bruises on her arm but ignores it. This portrays exactly what the director doesn’t want

his audience to do; to notice the abuse but do nothing about it. It flips to her sitting alone at

recess when a boy about her age comes and befriends her. Later, they are talking and laughing

through their bedroom windows for their houses are right next to each other. Her mother comes

in and starts scolding her; fear sweeps across her face for she doesn’t want her new friend to see

what she has to live with, which represents a deeper form of embarrassment. She’s embarrassed

about being abused. Her mother in a furious rage takes her to where the audience can only see

shadows and proceeds to beat her. The police and an ambulance show up but it is too late. Then

it shows a graveyard where the little boy, the teacher, and other adults are standing over a small

headstone reading “Angela Carter 1995-2002.” The little boy then passes through the adults to

Angela giving us the impression that he is an angel and now so is she. It ends with them running

towards a group of kids presumed also to be abused angels and the child abuse hotline number at

the top of the screen.

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Flanigen most widely uses the rhetorical appeal of pathos throughout the video. It makes

the audience’s heart ache for this little girl. It appeals to the parental need to protect not only

their children but children in general, that when they see any sort of abuse they will want to

report it so that what happened at the end of this video won’t happen to anybody else. Flanigen

also uses the appeal of ethos for Martina Mcbride is a widely known and trusted singer, as well

as ChildhelpUSA which is the company against child abuse that he puts their hotline number and

web address at the end. It’s an organization that has been around for years and has trusted

credibility. Finally, he uses the appeal of logos which is known as the appeal to reason. The

director himself created the whole video so that when the audience sees it will make them want

to prevent any situation like it at any chance they get. The director is trying to get the audience to

think logically about all of it and to take action when needed. Using all these rhetorical appeals

Flanigen effectively raises the awareness of child abuse and what should be done about it. Keep

the children safe and if you see something don’t ignore it.

Editorial Cartoon

Fig 3. Daryl Cagle. Teachers Then and Now Editorial Cartoon. 2013

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We can’t ignore the fact that times have changed, but not all has changed for the better.

Daryl Cagle created this editorial cartoon known as Teachers Then and Now to show how the

education system has changed for teachers. It was first presented in September of 2013 for the

audience of parents, students, and most of all teachers. It effectively conveys the message of how

the education system and parents now blame the teachers instead of the students for failing a

class. Cagle is trying to get the point across that parents no longer think that their children are

responsible for their grades or for anything in that matter.

The ad is split right down the middle with a squiggly black line representing the time

difference. On the left in big lettering is “1960” and on the right it reads in the same lettering

“Now.” In the 1960 half it is all in black and white; there are two angry parents holding a report

card that has the letter “F” on it. The parents yell “These grades are terrible!!” while hovering

over a scared child. The author implicating that the parents think that the child is at fault for the

grade. In the Now half is in color and it shows two more modern parents and their kid all yelling

towards a teacher in her desk. While holding the same “F” report card they are all yelling “These

grades are terrible!!” but the kid is also blaming the teacher. Cagle implicates in this half that the

student is taking no fault at this grade and the parents as well as the student is blaming the

teacher for it. The author uses the color scheme (black/white vs. color) to emphasis on the time

differences; the clothes from the 60’s and now are also different. Since it is a cartoon the author

uses a cartoon’s over exaggeration of things. For example, the huge mouths gaping with tongues

sprawled out to create comic relief of the real problem.

The author mostly uses the rhetorical appeal of pathos as well. Most comics are focused

on pathos; they want the audience to feel happy and laugh. Editorial cartoons such as Cagle’s are

the same; he wants them to laugh but still know there is a bigger meaning behind it. Next, Cagle

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uses Ethos because of how many of his pieces get published by popular newspapers. There’s

even a website that has a collection of creditable political cartoonist such as Cagle himself. Cagle

then uses logos because he creates a piece that makes the audience think logically about the

problem hidden within the comic. Editorial cartoons like this one are widely known to use logos

because it in itself creates a situation to reason with. Cagle effectively portrays his message of

how the education system and parents now blame the teachers instead of the students for failing a

class in his cartoon. It creatively gets them to think about how students and parents of students

have changed in viewing their grades. It also presents the idea that problems like this aren’t

looked at as closely unless they are shown in an editorial cartoon or something similar. Problems

like this should be taken more seriously and looked at with consideration that it should be

changed instead of laughed off as if it is just a joke.

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Works Cited

Cagle, Daryl Teachers And Now (2013) Web Cartoon April 2016

<http://www.politicalcartoons.com/cartoon/c2e18115-e6a0-4ccf-9dae-fe503b631037.html>

Flanigen, Deaton Concrete Angel (2009) Web Youtube Video April 2016

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtNYA4pAGjI>

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete_Angel>

Ogilvy, Memac& Dubai, Mather Women Should (2013)Web Advertisement April 2016

<http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2013/10/women-should-ads\>