Pradham Bathini

Dr. Jessica O’Hara

CAS 137H

5 October 2022

 

NOTES: More information will be added at the end of each body paragraph; a conclusion will be added at the end; this is just a rough draft of how the ideas will be presented/laid out and how the style will be, and more analysis will come after the comments/suggestions

 

What comes to mind when you hear the phrase, “You have the power to save a life?” Do you think of doctors, firefighters, superheroes, or even something as simple as a donator of blood? Technically, all of those answers fit the criteria of the phrase, and that is what the American Red Cross might be trying to do. Whether it was directly helping people in times of need such as war and natural disaster or donating blood to those who need it, the phrase, “power to save lives” can apply to many forms of volunteering. This civic artifact makes use of various lenses to appeal to viewers and to help motivate them to participate in whatever event the Red Cross holds. For example, this artifact connects to the third UN SDG: Good-Health and Well Being, as saving lives can be commonly attributed to healthcare. At the same time, another artifact, Dawn’s “Mother’s Love” ad that Emma Bauer is analyzing, relates to the Red Cross’s artifact as both use saving lives in their rhetoric. Using lenses such as pathos, representation of many people through saving lives, systems thinking, commonplaces such as volunteering, and the rhetorical situation, it will be possible to display this artifact and show how it makes use of rhetoric to convince the viewers to partake in this organization.

One lens that the Red Cross makes immediate use of through the slogan is pathos.o After all, who doesn’t want to save a life. The use of this strong language, such as “power” and “saving lives”, helps to appeal to the emotions of the audience. When people think of power, ideas such as importance and control come to mind. It is common for people to want to be important and to have control, so viewing this slogan may enable the pathos side for people. The phrase “saving lives” can also be a very sentimental topic. As many people, especially during the pandemic, lose lives in various ways, the phrase helps enhance the pathos and emotions to encourage the audience to take action, especially as the phrase is being used more and more often in recent times. By having those emotions, the audience is motivated to take action and participate in the organization.

Through “power of saving lives,” the Red Cross may be using this slogan to target a wide range of audiences. Because power to save lives can mean various things, such as medical help, evacuation from natural disasters, etc, the slogan can be used for many types of people. The slogan isn’t targeting specifically doctors, firefighters, or rich donors; however, the slogan is targeting the general public, as the Red Cross has many volunteering opportunities. There is a wide range of audiences where the phrase “saving lives” can apply to, which the Red Cross shows. The power to save lives may be appealing from the common man to an affluent businessman, which the slogan tries to represent.

The one part that the slogan capitalizes on is the rhetorical situation. At this time, the world is going through a pandemic and many natural disasters. The phrase “save a life” has been brought out in recent times due to these catastrophes, so the Red Cross uses this slogan to inspire the audiences. Using the rhetorical situation that the Red Cross uses, the slogan increases persuasion for the audience. The phrase saving lives has been turned into a commonplace,with the pandemic and the doctors saving patients, in return for the phrase becoming a common term. Immediately after the artifact is shown, the website prompts different links to different volunteering options: including blood drives, disaster evacuation teams, etc. When the audience first sees the “you have the power to save a life,” they immediately think of the ways that the common person like them can be capable of completing such a task. From there, the different links allow for the common audience to explore the ways they can use their power to save lives.

Another civic artifact that is very similar to this civic artifact is the Dawn’s “Mother’s Love” ad that Emma Bauer is analyzing. In this civic artifact, an advertisement depicts the dish soap saving the little birds by cleaning the birds when there are oil spills. By using the slogan, “do more than dishes,” the civic artifact helps persuade the viewers to take action in whichever way the organization wanted. This is similar to the Red Cross slogan artifact because both make use of the language choices of saving lives. While the Red Cross uses the word choice to invoke pathos, the Dawn advertisement evokes pathos through the use of visuals, such as the tiny bird getting dripped in oil.

 

 

Conclusion: