Persuasion Strategies In World Vision Commercial “Just Like Us”
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher that claimed: “Character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion.”, and he was considered one of the brightest men of his time. He created a famous rhetoric that stated three basic kinds of appeals to persuade an audience to his point of views: logos, pathos, and ethos. Logos — to persuade with use of logic and reason, pathos — to persuade using the manipulation of emotions, and ethos — to persuade based solely on the credibility of the speaker. These appeals Aristotle established have been deployed through many generations and appear in many different forms, from 30 second television advertisements to simply children convincing their mother to let them stay out late; logos, pathos, and ethos were present at every turn.
Some might feel that manipulating viewers minds has negative connotations but the truth is that it is utilized everywhere for good and bad. For instance, the non-profit organization World Vision has been supporting children in third world countries since the early 1950s, and yet they use logos, pathos, and ethos in virtually all of their advertisements. That does not mean that World Vision is bad, but rather they are smart and know how to attract their audience. Or do they? How does the use of the rhetorics in their commercials attract more donations than if they just asked people on the street for money? How does a one minute commercial effectively make people want to send their hard-earned cash across the continent?
The World Vision advertisement “Just Like Us” utilizes the persuasion strategies of logic, emotion, and credibility to effectively manipulate people’s minds into wanting to sponsor a child in Africa.The first rhetoric, logos, was very effective in convincing the audience to donate to their organization. By providing facts and visuals that the children are in desperate need of food and clean water, the logical side of our brain sees that money can indeed help make situations better for these tiny humans. Money cannot buy love, but it can buy clean water and multiple meals a day. This advertisement acts as an if/then statement which works effectively to show the brain that yes, if this bad situation is happening, then money can be the solution.
Although logos is effective in the video, it could have been utilized better. For instance, if World Vision showed statistics of how many children were helped by the public’s donations in the past, then the current viewers would be more inclined to donate as well, feeling assurance that their money would be used honestly. Aside from that, the logic and reasoning in this video is quite effective in gaining the audience’s trust, and trust is all that is needed when dealing with someone’s hard-earned money.With trust comes credibility, and with credibility comes ethos. Sometimes it does not matter if the speaker pleads a good case because if the speaker is not credible, no one is going to listen. World Vision is one of the most popular and well-known non-profit organizations in the world, meaning many know them and therefore trust that their money is going into good and honest hands. In addition, by simply announcing in a strong and confident tone that they are ‘World Vision’, people get a sense of authority and authenticity, even if they have never heard the name before.
Another strong place where ethos is demonstrated is when the children introduce themselves and tell the audience of their hardships; psychologically, people are more inclined to trust children than adults as children represent the innocence and honesty adults used to be before being corrupted by society’s views and opinions. Alongside that, studies also show that people are more trusting of women than men because women are seen as fragile and emotional, and by having a woman narrate the video that trust subconsciously develops in the viewer's brain. By trusting that the children are telling the truth of their suffering and that the woman narrating honestly cares about them, the audience trusts the company World Vision to donate. As Aristotle once said, “Character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion.”.A person’s character may play a very important factor when persuading someone, but the rhetoric pathos, persuasion by the appeal to one’s emotions, is by far the strongest and most effective in this video. Pathos is seen in every second of the commercial, whether it was in the dialogue, the music, or the cinematography, all parts were vital to engage an emotional response from the audience. When the children tell the audience about what they love to do, the soundtrack is an upbeat tune, stimulating the brain to feel happy. When the children begin to discuss the hardships in their life, the music adjusts to a slower tune, stimulation the brain to feel sad.
The creators of the video use the music and sound to attract the viewers’ attention, to engulf them in the video that they feel what the people on screen feel. For example, in horror films there are the slow, eerie sounds that bring out anticipation and excitement in the audience, leaving them hanging off the edge of their seat. The World Vision commercial may not leave many on the edge of their seat but might leave them with tears in the corner of their eyes instead. And although the music is vital to the tone of the video, the cinematography was undoubtedly the most important factor that tied everything together. The camera knowingly zooms in on the children’s faces so the viewers can see that these are, in fact, real children suffering. When the boy in the video cries, the cameraman makes sure to focus on the tear rolling down his face. By doing this, the audience will feel sympathy and compassion, and therefore donate. And psychologically, seeing children cry can trigger a woman’s maternal instincts, leading them to be more susceptible than men to the pathos featured in the video. In that case, one could deduce that the majority of the donors are women. Additionally, by having the children monologue about their poverty (such as only one meal a day and dirty water to drink), it causes people to feel guilty for the items in their life that they take for granted.
Titling the video “Just Like Us” also adds to the guilt factor as although both parties are human, one party is treated unfairly simply because they live in a different location. Guilt is a strong and powerful motivator and by having the audience think this way, it makes them want to donate. No one likes to think of themselves as a bad person. No one likes to realize that while they sit around on leather couches eating junk food, a child in Africa is walking a mile for a small bucket of water. People have said before that guilt can eat you alive, and they aren’t wrong in the slightest. By donating, people think they have made a positive difference in the world, that they have done their duty to help these small children struggling in a third world country, therefore soothing any guilt they had previously had and replacing it with a sense of satisfaction. Society has always suggested that money can fix anything, that money can indeed buy happiness, and who are they to deny that fact?
Pathos is based heavily on psychological impulses and emotional reactions in the brain, and this commercial brings them out to effectively convince people to donate. The rhetoric pathos is by far the most effective and strongest argument in this video.Despite pathos being the strongest rhetoric in the video, it would be nothing without its two companions logos and ethos.
By combining all three persuasion strategies, World Vision successfully and effectively manipulates people into donating to their cause through their commercial “Just Like Us”. The credibility of the company, intertwined with the facts and emotional responses received from this video, creates such a powerfully persuasive argument that people might not even realize that they were just coerced by a one minute advertisement to send away their hard earned dollars. It is hard to believe that manipulation techniques from before technology was created would still be used today, and even harder to believe that they would still be effective. However, this World Vision commercial proves that as fact. These three rhetorics were created before Christ was born, and yet society is still feeling its effects centuries later. The technique may grow old, but the effectiveness never will.
