I have struggled with the topic for my advocacy project, but I think that I have finally come up with something. I didn’t really want to be too political, and wanted to do something that a wide range of people would respond to. My topic will be on second hand smoke, especially in regard to children. There is a proposed law in Texas right now that I believe should become a national law. Basically the law would say that it is illegal to smoke while children are present in either a closed space or close proximity to the smoker. Here is my plan:

Purpose: I want to advocate either people not smoking around children, or people to join some type of movement that would get this law passed.

Strategy: There are a lot of negative effects of second hand smoking, especially when it comes to children in their development phase. I could use a lot of emotional appeals to show how smoking around kids is a very bad thing.

Audience: My audience is very very broad for this. Everyone was a child once and therefore can relate to the protection of health for children. I honestly can’t think of anyone who this project would not relate to.

As far as the type of media I will use, I am torn between a video and a podcast. I like podcasts because they are like small radio speeches and I think it is fun to persuade with your voice. However, with a video I could add images that would enhance the emotional appeal.