Sunday, May 6, 2012

Media Log #3: PETA

     This ad by PETA really intrigued me with a bit of simplicity. It expresses a simple freedom for animals but in this case, birds. The blue sky gives off a peaceful nature. It's also the natural habitat for those birds in the picture and away from the dark cage. This ad assumes in big words that no one wants to be caged which is true more or less. Most people would agree to it but long behold the smaller words under it. Why would they decrease the font of purpose of the ad? I'd say it would have been more effective to enlarge more than the previous phrase. 
   
   Although this ad could have used a lot of ethical convincing, but it didn't. The creators didn't want to attack the onlooker into thinking they're immoral by trapping birds. They could have used "PEOPLE WHO TRAP BIRDS ARE WRONG. LET BIRDS FLY FREE," or a variation that saying. If they used that, not only are they dissatisfying the onlooker, they make them uncomfortable.

   One has to notice the half (maybe fully) naked attractive guy holding the cage. I mean, he's half the ad. What effect could he possibly pull off? The creators may be using the testimonial technique because he sure looks famous enough. "If we let birds free, we can be just like him!" But him being naked implies a bit of sex appeal which means that this is targeted to the ladies. Through my minimal stereotypical statistics, guys are the majority of bird owners (I'm actually not sure but this is just from what I've seen through media) so they're whole idea is misrepresented.

   Overall, this ad is just average or a bit less than that. It's not eye catching or anything but it does make steady statement despite the lack of reason.
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2 comments:

  1. Stephan's Rad Media logMay 8, 2012 at 4:21 PM

    PETA has a large history of using the sex appeal in all of their ad's, usually including half-naked women and men saying some semi-sexual phrase that more or less connects to the point their trying to point out. The ad's meaning usually taken away because the majority are just staring these people rather than caring about animals. I don't believe its very effective but this ad is able to bring the point across.

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  2. Brian KMay 22, 2012 at 9:30 PM

    I have never viewed PeTA(not a typo. This is how they stylize it. Plus I don't think the ethical part of PeTA is very important to them) as a group that really cared about animals. They care about the attention that they get through their often controversial ads. Looking at the ad, the animals are not the main focus. They are the background. The shirtless man is the main focus. They are trying to attract young female to join their nonexistent cause through sex appeal. PeTA does the same thing for young males, too. It's not a bad strategy though. The youth are the ones that are able to be influenced by a need that's shallow.

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