Journal #12: Pathos Appeals

 The ad definitely aims to evoke a melancholic feeling during the opening shot of the Native American man alone on the pond. It feels as though we are witnessing the aftermath of a long, stressful journey. The instrumental sounds almost like a horror movie-esque Jaws type of theme with the foreboding tone, but it gradually becomes louder and harsh as the man approaches the shore, leaning into that idea.

After the man reaches the shore (accompanies by some shots of pollution), the tone shifts slightly to make the audience feel disgust at pollution and the people who carelessly destroy the natural world. The deep-voiced narrator offers some transition into this idea, but the shot of the person throwing litter out of the window and the subsequent shot panning up the Indian man as it falls by his feet are intended to make us feel both spite and sadness. 

The way in which this ad attempts to provoke empathy in viewers is by taking something universally known- a Native American man- and using the imagery associated with him- that being the native peoples' respect for the natural world- to create an association in viewers that the world we live in today is a cheap, polluted imitation of the one that the native people worship. 

My parents do not seem to recall this ad, so I'll just scoot over to the next question. The impact seems to have a lot to do with the audio. The lack of words for the first half of the ad makes it seem desolate, like you're watching a movie clip. It gives you time to think about what you are watching and wonder what it is promoting. 

If I had to guess, I'd say that this ad probably wouldn't work as well nowadays. A lot of ads about climate change that I've personally seen are more statistic-based. They'll have a cincher like "did you know the ocean has *insert number here* tons of plastic in it?" or start with a panning shot of sad animals like those ASPCA commercials to tug at your heartstrings. If anything, they'd probably go the animal route as I've seen a lot, or they'd describe the human risks of pollutants in order to make people feel like the ad is more personalized to them. 

This isn't to say the ad isn't effective, though. I do think it would be impactful today in a way solely because of how out of place it would feel after something like those Jardiance ads where the people sing in an office about managing their diabetes well or an ad for one of those expensive steel no-stick pans. The whole statistics route might just be my own personal preference, since the numbers really help me realize just how insane pollutants are in volume.