Tow #4: Visual text

The visual text that I analyzed was an ad by Amnesty International. In the ad, it brings up the topic of suicide awareness and says that the person may survive suicide, but the gossip leaves deeper scars. It also talks about how the mental illness itself doesn't discriminate, people do. The author of this ad is Amnesty International, a non profit organization founded in 1961. Today this organization has over 3 million members and their goal is to draw attention to human rights abuses and campaigns for compliance with international laws and standards. It also has the longest history and broadest name recognition in the field of many international rights organizations. The ad's focused audience is mainly those who have tried suicide or know someone who has. The context speaks to the audience in a way that they would understand the situation because it talks about that the discrimination that someone in that instance would experience. A key rhetorical device used in this visual text to achieve purpose is amplification, in which the word discrimination is bolded and used throughout to successfully draw to the audience's attention. The effect of this took is so that the audience also recognizes the importance of the purpose. The purpose of this ad is to gain more support and awareness to not only suicide, but also to the organization so that they can stop discrimination as a whole. In my opinion Amnesty international did an excellent job with achieving their purpose because they apply to pathos by making the audience feel bad for the person in the ad who is a suicide survivor, and then making them feel even worse by revealing that she is a mother of two who has been discriminated by gossip.