Friday, April 15, 2011
Appeal to Pity
Another concept in Chapter 10 of Epstein's book is the appeal to pity. The appeal of pity is when someone use something on advertisement that will make their audeince come to their senses and donate money or something helpful to help people make a better living after feeling sorry for them. An example for this would be like this one advertisement I saw on TV where they showed few pictures of beaten animals and stated that donating a dollar or two could help and build a shelter for those animals. I know people would end up donating money or anything that could possibly help those beaten animals because they will feel sorry and have sympathy after seeing those horrible pictures. Another example would be an adverstisement who uses photos of people who looks unhealthy due to the fact that they are homeless and have no money to buy food to feed their family. This would most likely make the audiences feel sorry and end up donating money, goods, clothes or anything that could help these people for the better.
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I totally agree with your post. Personally, I think when advertisers use appeals to pity, I think it’s a cop-out because they can’t find any better way to draw in their audiences. It’s a shame because sometimes I think of where the money goes and is it actually being used to feed the needy and not be an exploitation of a poverty-stricken people. I remember being up late one night and I saw a commercial for Holocaust survivors, and how the Russian government only provided as much as a head of cabbage and two potatoes for the month. The commercial asked for donations of $15 to cover the cost of food and drink for the survivors. It was unfortunate that I couldn’t wrap myself around the fact that the money could or couldn’t be going directly to the needy as opposed to the foundation.
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