Maria Roca

English 200
February 07, 2011
Mr. McKeever

Do you know what global warming is? Do you know how you affect it? Or how it
can affect you? Through a very successful ad campaign WWF managed to bring
conscious into people about this matter. In this particular ad they tried to convince all non
global warming activists, or all people who just dont care about global warming, because
they think it doesnt concern them, to take matter into their own hands, and become,
along with the activist, a part of the solution. They wish to get the non activists involved
into this matter, not because of caprice, but because as more people get involved in this
cause, global warming might just be solved.
The reason of non activist to not participate in this cause vaires from person to
person. Some just dont find the time, while others just dont care, or think it doesnt
concern them. This is not only a matter of big companies, eventhough now a days there
are more and more ecofriendly companies,all the people contribute, in larger or smaller
portions, to global warming, from leaving on the television to mass producing and
shooting Carbon Dioxide into the atmoshpere, it all contributes to global warming.
The intention, of this particular ad, is to create awareness through Pathos, Ethos
and Logos, by stating that people are the problem, hence they are the solution. It gives
people an alternative of how they can become involved in being the solution, how they

can help save their planet.We are talking about a global matter, in which we are all
involved, from the smallest kid to the most important CEO of a company. They got into
peoples minds and gave them a graphic and descriptive look of what we are destined to,
if we dont change.
So, what is global warming? Global warming is an increase in the temperature of
earths atmosphere, which ends up causing a climate change. As you know a climate
change affects our only mean of life, Earth. As seen grafically in this ad, this changes,
will end up affecting everything living in our Earth, ultimately changing humans.
This is why today there are many associations committed with fighting climate
change, one of them is WWF. WWF is an international recognized organization, which
has one sole porpouse, protect the future of nature, which includes us. This organization
is the author of this particular ad, and through it they wish to help reduce climate change
by making all the people, who are not yet aware of the critical situation, conscious about
it. I think this ad is very effective in convincing the particular audience, the non activists,
into taking action towards helping counteract the effects of global warming and global
warming itself. It pictures the future people are destined to encounter if they dont change
their way of interacting with this world. The image is such a strong image that it
immediately captures your attention and your thoughts.
After taking a good look of this image and understanding all the evidence implied
through it, all the non activists will feel they have a compromise with the future of this
world. Their opinions would drastically change from feeling they dont have time or that
it doesnt concern them, to becoming involved in the process of reverting and preventing
global warming.

In this paper I will analyze the different design elements, Ethos, Pathos and Logos
present in this ad, and how they sucesfully manage to persuade people about this
particular matter.
People have seen through the years, as our world progresses, into technology and
growth, that many species and natural places have changed. Not only changed, many
have been destroyed. One of the reasons of this change is global warming. This ad tries to
convince us of this, through Ethos. They present a strong message, founded in common
knowledge, trying to show us the consequences this brings. As people have seen that as
global warming increases more natural disasters occur. Rains and weather change affect
more directly humans bringing death and diseases among our people, being always the
more affected poor people. I have had the unfortunate chance of seeing this on first hand.
I come from a third world country, where poor people predominate among the
population. As a disaster, like a crude winter, in a place where this is not supposed to
happen, occurs, this people are the most affected.
This ad sends a strong message about how this is changing our lives. This
message is portrayed through the large letters at the bottom of the advertisement. They
are big white letters contrasting with the dark background. It makes them stand out,
therefore makes you read them. The letters capture your attention without taking away
importance to the picture. The message is important, but not the most important appeal of
the ad.This message makes people wonder what the future departs for them, their kids
and the future generations. It makes us think if there is something we can do to change
the destruction we are causing. By reading the letters alone, the audience may not have
been totaly convinced. They have heard this line many times, and yet they still havent

been involved. When the letters are combined together with the image, the message takes
an even stronger approach.
This ad gives us a very clear Pathos, through the graphic example of what can
happen to humans, the ones who survive the disasters.
When this image first gets your sight, you realize that something is wrong, not
normal. It is an image we dont see every day, therefore it makes us look at it again and
analyze the picture to detail. People can clearly distinguish a mans body with a fish face.
He is place against a plain, boring background, so that nothing distracts our sight from
this image. When you look more closely you see that the mans fish face bears a worried
look. He is not looking into a clear spot, in the other hand he is staring at the horizon,
making it more evident that he is worried. Through this strong approach, the audience
becomes totaly involved in the cause. They feel that the guilt of letting this destruction
occur, is going to fall right into their shoulders, they are going to be the only ones to
blame, and no one wants to be guilty of something as serious as destroying the planet.
This strong message makes people realize they have changed the world and continue to
change it. People now consider how far they have gone in changing the world, the entire
world, from places, to animals, to human beings, and what they can do to fix it. The
image is the most important appeal into convincing non activists to become involved.
This image presents in a more indirect way, Logos. The logic of the text itself
presents an explicit and implicit view to be interpreted by the audience. Explicitly the
message people have heard so many times Stop Global Warming, yet this simple
message doesnt affect people personally, they dont seem particulary attached to this
message. Analyzing this message in a more implicit way, the message gets more personal.

People get directly involved, by interpreting the part where it says ... before it changes
you. Now people see that it can affect them, it is something out there that will change
their routine and their lives. Now global warming became personal.By leaving space for
an implicit interpretation, the ad reasures its power of persuading the audience to become
more active in helping the planet.
On top of that there are the already known the effects of global warming. Many
nature organizations have been founded to help prevent this phenomeno. The nature
organizations have measured the effects of climate change and have made public the
effect it has in our habitat, and lately in our lives. Some of the most important changes the
world encounters are floods, stronger and an increase in the number of hurricanes, more
droughts, alteration in food availability, among others. Global warming is also liked to an
increase in disease-carrying pests, such as Dengue fever and Malaria.
As you can see global warming is changing and destroying the world. Hence it is
only matter of time it ends up changing and ultimately destroying people, either in a
direct or indirect way. After seeing all the devastation that can happen, we know that
people are the only ones responsible for it, therefore the only ones responsible for fixing
it as well.
This ad catches peoples attention and invites them to analyze in a closer look our
future. Even if you dont know about climate change, this ad gives you a general idea and
makes you want to have more information about this theme.
There are many ways to prevent global warming, many organizations helping this
cause, like WWF. When you see the logo on the bottom of the image, you immediately
relate the two of them, and see that there is a solution, that you can be part of the solution.

This ad ends up persuading people into becoming involved in fighting the cause, into
fighting global warming. It invites all non activists to participate and lets all activists
know that global warming is not a lost cause. This ad ends up creating and reinforcing
peoples global conscious.
This ad successfully portraits an imaginary future of our planet, more specifically
of humans, if we dont change our way of living with this world. If we continue to
change it, this world just might up changing us.