Comparing Kinder and Little Red Riding Hood to Assault Rifles
In the wake of too many school shootings and incidents of gun violence there are people within out society who are using this disappointingly Kairotic era to promote their fight against guns.
Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America Advertisement (2013)
Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America Advertisement (2013)
These advertisements by the political activist group, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, will stop you in your tracks and make anyone who sees them take another look. The pathetic appeal oozes from these campaigns.
They are both set in school environments, playing on the audiences previous understanding and knowledge of school shootings and the idea of guns in schools being a largely debated current issue, as well as tying in the innocent pathetic appeal of school children and the environment of growth and learning a school should foster. They also both present young children, who look intense as they beg the viewer to truly consider what they are posing for. The commonplace idea of protecting innocent children reaches out to the hearts of those who see the advertisement and makes them wonder what their own political decision are doing to help these kids.
The flag in the background of the second advertisement plays on the importance of our nationalism that seems to fuel the pride of weaponry and further force us to consider if that pride should take second place to these kids. More so still, the powerful contrast between weaponry and children’s books/kinder chocolate demand the viewer to question, how could we ban such seemingly innocent artifacts and yet allow fire arms to be so available.
All of these rhetorical appeals are powerful within these advertisements but what truly makes the advertisements powerful as a whole is the current climate that they are presented within. The Kairos behind them validate their stances and positions they put forth. Moms Demand Action demanded the attention at the advantageous time of current events as their main issue was brought into the lime-light. The organization was in tune with the rhetorical situation of the issue that when it was brought into the political center they were able to take advantage of the debate and smaller issues within it to present their stance strongly and accurately. The mothers pulled skillfully on the fact that kinder chocolates and certain books are banned within schools and the U.S. in general to protect children and then they connected that fact to the truth that guns are not banned in the U.S., yet they are the artifacts that are much more threatening to American youth.
CNN Map representing the first 23 school shootings that occurred just from January – May 2018
CNN information about School Shootings in this year alone
Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America is a group of mothers around the United States who fight for gun legislation and education amongst citizens about gun violence, like the group Mothers Against Drunk Driving do to educate the population about drinking and driving. The group was created in 2012 after the devastating shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, and the ads shown above were released only a few weeks after that school shooting, in the attempt to demand and redirect already given attention about the subject towards making a change. Since then the group has grown exponentially and continues to track down legislators and speak to arms companies about making the U.S. safer when it comes to weapons.
Moms Demand Action responded strongly to these devastating violent events, but it is up to us, the American people to decide whether or not their arguments were effective.