Barber 1 Kyle K. Barber Ms. Garver English 103 18 Sept. 2011 HuhDeforestation?

Why should you care about deforestation, I mean come on nothing bad happens to you personally as a result of deforestation, right? This thought process is a common one in terms of environmental awareness today; this is because of the constant berating the public audience receives from environmental ad companies, to convince them to go green. The author of this ad used the now natural apathy for environmental ads that has built up over time to strengthen his argument, as well as other rhetorical strategies like pathos by immediately making us feeling sorry for Tarzan, cause and effect by showing us a before and after view, and logos with the facts on the picture to persuade the reader that deforestation does have an impact not only on our daily lives but the earth as a whole. The World Wildlife Fund, this ads creator, really wants the audience to understand the global implications of deforestation in order to created a united worldwide effort to make this process more sustainable.

Barber 2 Deforestation can be dated all the way back to pre-industrial Europe. In fact deforestation was one of the primary causes of the industrial revolution. I guess its like they say, Old habits die hard. The World Wildlife Fund or WWF was created to build a future where people live in harmony with nature (Welcome to WWFs), which is exactly what they are trying to persuade us the reader to do through this piece of visual rhetoric. At first glance, the audience first notices Tarzan about to fall onto a desolate field of stumps after swinging through a lush rainforest. This is a great use of the pathos appeal because after seeing this the viewer immediately feels for the nearly naked monkey man flying through the air. This is a great strategy by the author to immediately grab our emotions and create a sense of emotional attachment to Tarzan, which in turn makes the viewer receptive to what the ad is actually attempting to convey to the audience. This emotional appeal not only draws the reader to look deeper into the ad but also instills a general sense of sorrow into the readers mind, allowing them to look at the ad with a more I feel sorry for the rainforest mindset. With a deeper look into this ads pathos appeal, we see the dark, thunderous clouds looming in the sky above the atrocity that is taking place. This really pulls the reader toward the fact that deforestation is devastating by bringing in something that the reader is familiar with and knows can cause massive destruction. It is these simple connections to the average Joes life that can drive the authors point home. The thunderstorm is representative of not only the destruction of the rainforest itself, but also to the people that live in it, such as Mr. Tarzan. The final appeal to pathos of the ad is the big, yellow, earthshattering bulldozer in the background. Seeing Tarzan falling and the thunderous clouds lead the reader to

Barber 3 believe that these bulldozers are bad news, and give the reader a sense of hatred towards them for destroying Tarzans home. What the WWF conveys with the bulldozer is that these huge companies that come in and destroy the forests have zero regard for the people in the forests, or the entire ecosystem as a whole. They simply shrug off the massive environmental and humanitarian implications of their forest destroying endeavors. These emotional appeals, Tarzan, the clouds and the tractor play a role in the overall effectiveness of the audience persuading power of this ad. Facts are great tools of persuasion for any type of visual rhetoric, and something the author of this ad used to drive his point home. The small words in this ad play a big role in the success of the persuasive nature of it. As an appeal to logos, this text is a way of using facts instead of visual opinions to persuade the reader to take a step back, and really analyze what deforestation is. The intended audience of this ad is anyone who is on the fence or is completely unaware of the implications of deforestation; therefore, the facts presented in the ad create a way of proving to the reader that deforestation is a bad thing. The author can not expect any sort of knowledge base for his readers, which is why these words are loaded with persuasive value, it gives the reader tangible evidence that they may not have known before reading the ad. The actual size of the font plays a significant role in the persuasiveness of the ad because the whole point of having a picture is to persuade your audience with the contents of the actual picture, hence the small letters. However, the graphic alone does not do justice to the overall enormity of the problem at hand, which is why, without the words, this ad is nothing more than a thorn in the side of some big shot at a logging company. The inclusion of text creates an extremely persuasive, yet factual argument against deforestation.

Barber 4 Before and after perspectives add a new persuasive element to a piece, they show the reader what deforestation is doing to the environment. This picture shows a before being the trees in the far left of the frame and an after being the desolate field of mangled stumps behind the bulldozer. The author uses this strategy to play into the readers apathy towards deforestation, by showing the viewer what actually happens in the rainforest. This is based on the solid assumption that nobody reading this text has actually seen a first hand account of deforestation. Before and after perspectives appeal to logos by using the fact that most right-minded humans beings that look at this picture can logically deduce that deforestation is bad, or at least that it makes once beautiful landscapes desolate and disturbing images of human interaction with the environment. The black and white, trees no trees view of the forest persuades the reader how destructive deforestation can be, this makes the viewer more susceptible to persuasion by giving the reader knowledge on the subject they may not have had before. The simple strategy of cause and effect persuasion has been taught to the majority of children starting at a very young age, by parents telling them that if they do this then this will happen. The WWF ad uses this form of persuasion to enhance their argument against deforestation by showing the reader the causes of deforestation and the effects it has on the environment. Both the cause and the effect are made clear to the reader in this ad. The cause being the big, yellow bulldozer and the effect the desolate stump field, stripped of its natural rainforest beauty. As the audience focuses on the effects of deforestation, they are left with poor Mr. Tarzan to sympathize over. This is where the author gains a foothold in persuading the audience, as they are left more receptive to the purpose of the ad because of the strong emotional connection they now feel with Tarzan.

Barber 5 Seeing a cause and effect scenario puts the implications of deforestation into perspective for the viewer. This also shows how the author not only perceives deforestation as something that needs to stop but also persuades the audience of it. Before this ad was even a thought in the authors head, there were advocates to the message this ad conveys concerning deforestation. Theodore Roosevelt once stated, A people without children would face a hopeless future; a country without trees is almost as helpless ("Quotations on the Forest"). Almost one hundred years later, the author of this WWF ad is reiterating the concerns for forests that Roosevelt expressed in this quote. What Roosevelt said is exactly what the author is conveying to the audience in this ad, with his use of the rhetorical devices, pathos, cause and effect, and logos. In the ad the field of stumps seems so helpless, just like President Roosevelt stated, which plays along with the authors purpose and persuasiveness of the ad. The helplessness of Mr. Tarzan, and his lack of vine, is used as an emotional trigger for the audience, in order to heighten their receptiveness to the message. As the viewer looks deeper into the ad, they cannot help but to be persuaded by the visual rhetoric that the author has put out to convey his message. Tarzan falling, the bulldozer smashing down trees and the looming clouds all scream at you as the ad quietly sits there in its frame, waiting for someone to pass by and be intrigued. This ad is great but it does not mean anything if the viewers do not do anything. Based on the authors persuasiveness in this ad, the audience should take a lot of pictures of trees because at the rate we are going they might need them to show their grandchildren the beauty that the earth once had.

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Works Cited Gottliebsen, Rasmus, Jesper Hansen, Rasmus Dunvad, and Per Pedersen. 15 square kilometer of rain forest disappears every minute. Digital image. The Ads of The World. Apr. 2007. Web. 08 Sept. 2011. <http://adsoftheworld.com/media/print/wwf_tarzan>.

"Quotations on the Forest." University of St. Thomas A Private, Catholic Liberal Arts University in Minnesota University of St. Thomas : Home. Web. 08 Sept. 2011. <http://www.stthomas.edu/recycle/forest.htm>.

Welcome to WWF's Global Network. Web. 08 Sept. 2011. <http://wwf.org>.