Charity Appeal Essay:BLinking Hell and Sheep

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With reference to the charity appeals explore how persuasive techniques are used to attract potential donors or supporters

‘Blinking Hell’:

‘Blinking hell’ is a charity appeal that targets potential donors to raise funds to aid young children and others recover from a serious illness called Trachoma which affects the eye. The appeal is made by an international charity organization named ‘Sight Savers’.

The charity appeal has a photo of a young child’s eyes being tortured and hurt by barbed wire surrounding his eye lashes preventing him from closing his eye. The picture arouses an emotive response because it allows us to feel the pain with the child and his suffering. The huge picture forces us to look carefully and with awareness at the appeal because the picture radiates sorrow and suffer. This eventually leads us to explore further and to better grasp the message. The title of the appeal ‘Blinking Hell’ is printed in a large font compared with the rest of the appeal mainly to highlight the importance of this fact and to catch the attention of the target audience. It starts off by mentioning the phrase ‘at first’, this suggest first hand experience with ‘Trachoma’, and gives an idea of a silent horror that will commence.

The appeal strongly exploits the natural affection towards sick children. It uses the phrase ‘Just watch a child for five minutes.’ The first paragraph ends with a growing sense of anticipation to know more of this painful disease. The phrase ‘Imagine, every time you blink, you scratch your eyes’ is written in a separate box. As an insert it makes it stand out from the rest of the text to stress the agony of these desperate children. Second person command verb ‘you’ is used to allow us to imagine their situation and condition in reality. The appeal gives us the impression that we should feel guilty and ashamed when it refers to: ‘Never even heard’ as if millions are dying from it and we never heard of it. Alliteration is present when the appeal says: ‘And millions more carrying the infection’, it is used to draw attention and highlight that ‘Trachoma’ is gradually spreading.

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‘It makes life impossible for young mothers trying to raise children. Fathers and husbands can’t work to support themselves’; this phrase mentions the children then the mother and lastly the father or husband. It uses this specific order because children are the people who attract affection from adults.

A coupon/form is used in the appeal, to make the method of donating money easy and for potential donors not to find the procedures complicated. The coupon that is attached in the appeal makes us feel that the money that will be donated will reach the children because it ...

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