The American Red Cross - Strength in Numbers

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The American Red Cross does not use pathos just to tug at people’s hearts, but also to fill their hearts with joy. For example, people that have been helped during disaster relief efforts, medical patients, and families in need. The use of pathos in their advertisements is to hit the emotional part of the brain and it is supposed to bring people from sad to happy. The Red Cross uses happy images, or videos in their advertisements to show contributors or potential donors that a lot of good comes from what their organization is doing. For example, at the beginning of any American Red Cross advertisement they show families or people in need of their help. It may be right after a natural disaster, patients that needed more blood to live, or a country that is in desperate need of a fresh water supply. Towards the end of the advertisement the music in the background starts sounding brighter, while on the video it shows families, people, and cities that got the help that they needed. This tactic is very beneficial to attract supporters that want to help people that are suffering through a horrible event. While sad images tip off people’s emotions, happy images in comparison put the icing on the cake. The sad feelings are essentially the bait to attract people to donate, and as soon as they see that they have helped in a good way, it is all over from there.

The American Red Cross uses different types of appeals such as ethos to convince people they have a strong business model and to show that they are trustworthy, but they also use pathos, particularly sad images, to make potential donors emotional. As they continue to use different types of appeals, ethos and pathos will always be the ones they use the most. If the American Red Cross were to stop using any of these campaigns their company would see a major drop in their production of helping others in need.

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Works Cited

American Red Cross. "Last Year’s Disaster: The American Red Cross Response. Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 2 Jan. 2014. Web. 5 Oct. 2015.

American Red Cross. A Brief History of the American Red Cross. N.p.: American Red Cross, n.d. N. pag. Web. 5 Oct. 2015.

American Red Cross. Blood Facts and Statistics. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. Web. 5 Oct. 2015.

American Red Cross. What We Do. N.p.: American Red Cross, n.d. N. pag. Web. 5 Oct. 2015.

SauceSpotz. “American Red Cross TV Commercial, ‘Before the Fire’ Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 19 May. 2014. Web. 5 Oct. 2015.

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