SPCA Commercial

I often come across this tear-invoking commercial whenever I am watching TV. The SPCA make this commercial in order to persuade people to join and donate money to the organization. In addition, they were probably attempting to encourage people adopt cats and dogs.

In order for the SPCA to get their point across, they used a lot of pathos (appeal to emotions) in this commercial. Throughout the whole commercial they show abused animals limping as they walk or in cages, starring at you with their saddest faces. While this is happening they play very sad music that, even without the pictures of beaten animals, makes me feel like crying. In addition they include very depressing facts, such as every hour an animal is beaten or abused. While hard to watch, I think that these sad images make this ad  very convincing. All of the pictures of cute animals that are beaten and abandoned at shelters probably make many people very sympathetic towards these animals, so they might go to a shelter and adopt one.

One interesting aspect of this commercial, and SPCA commercials in general, is the lack euphemisms, or double speak. They do not shy away from using emotional or disturbing images. In other ads that I have seen for animals shelters, they tend to avoid talking about animal abuse. Also, instead of showing pictures of starving animals that have been abandoned, they might simply show pictures of cute animals and say that an animal is lonely and looking for a good home. Even though these ads are much less sad, I think they are also less likely to convince someone to adopt an animal or donate to an organization.