The text is a magazine advertisement of the event "Crisis on Christmas." The
speaker of the advertisement can be the charity "Crisis" and the single homeless, the
text is written in the perspective of the single homeless. "23.39 pounds" is not a
small amount of money, so the target audience is the middle-upperclass people in
U.K who can afford to pay for the charity event. The purpose of the text is to
persuade people to participate in the charity event to help the single homeless
people. The text effectively uses rhetorical devices, tones and stylistic features to
achieve its purpose of protexting the single homeless people.
Just a few pounds- 23.39 pounds in fact: shows the exact minimum amout
that should be given, and also shows that a little money can go a long way. make the
reader feel like they should give money because it's such a "little" amount. "For Just"
at the end of the first page has the same affect. "We know how that works" - shows
ethos because it ensures the reader that the Crisis charity has done this type of thing
before, making them seem reliable. 1 place= 3 hot meals, a new set of clothes, a
health check up... ect ect - this shows logos and tell the reader exactly what their
money is going to do for the single homeless person. "Since 1972" "...for 40 years" also shows reliability to the reader. The story of John on the second page also shows
ethos and pathos towards the reader. It gives the reader a specific person who was
helped by the Crisis Charity, as well as a personal life story about john that will
touch the emotional side of the reader. The testimonial of john also shows reliability,
and the picture of john also shows the reader exactly how "happy" john looks now,
after being aided by th emoney from the Crisis Charity.
The text also utilizes several forms of persuasive language that are used to
show three main things: the lives of homeless people are harsh, they are in need of
immediate help, Crisis is the appropriate option for aiding the homeless. For
example, the text includes words like “homelessness” which convey a sense of being
in a bad position. The text elaborates on the harsh life of homeless by using phrases
such as “Cramming”, “sleeping on people’s floors”, “worse than ever”, “sleep rough”,
which appeals to the emotional side of the audience by making them relate to their
experiences for any of the listed discomforts that they might have felt and this
makes them want to put people out of their misery even if that costs a certain fee.
The text also uses these words in conjunction with words that convey the
desperation of the situation such as “vulnerable”, and “crucial” to show that the
homeless are in dire need of immediate help which makes the readers want to act as
soon as possible. Any hinge of doubt on the reader’s mind as to the credibility of
Crisis’s claims is removed through the use of phrases that establish credibility for
the organization. Such intention is evident in phrases such as “40 years”, “National
Charity”, “Dedicated”, “Changing lives”, “ending homelessness”, which show how
money spent to mitigate homelessness is best used by Crisis organization. Hence it’s
evident that deliberate placing of languages has achieved the purpose of persuading
more people to join Crisis’s charity event at Christmas.
There are several visual stylistic features in this advertisement. Firstly, the
heading of the advertisement is written in a question form (We're planning to take
on homelessness this Christmas. Will you?), and this can provoke emotions in the
audience, having them reflect on themselves and their actions. Also the
advertisement used snow flakes in the heading to create a snowy cold atmosphere
to enhance their purpose accompanied with the COLD WEATHER ALERT below the
heading to make the audience have a sense of guilt because the middle-upperclass
people are usually at home where it's warm, and Crisis is trying to make people
donate money so homeless single people can have a warm place too. Second, on the
next page, having a picture of John added credibility to the charity because it
showed what came out of the charity - a well dressed man with a watch which
shows that the charity really does help homeless people. Also having a little tag in
the right box stating "Changing Lives for 40 years" grabs the audience's attention
which will make the audience read what's written next to it. Lastly, putting the logo,
the site and phone number makes the advertisement more legit because it allows
audiences to reach the charity and find out more about it which means that the
person is more likely going to donate money. These three are the most important
stylistic features in this advertisement that helps the speaker achieve its purpose of
persuading people to help homelessness.
In this particular advertisement, lots of salient features such as rhetorical
device, tone, and stylistic features were used to succeed the purpose of an
advertisement, which is to persuade people. In advertisement, the most important
feature, in my opinion is the rhetorical device, pathos. This is because it influences
the reader's feeling and when they are emotionally touched, they are easily
persuaded. Having an effective pathos will make the advertisement look like an
advertisement. Overall, the combinations of these salient features made a really
good persuasive advertisement.