‘Its time to face the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.’ This famous court saying, being used as a title is very effective. It’s very eye-catching, and takes us a lot of room in the advertisement.
There are 6 crossheads in the article, which gives the readers a hint of what is to come, and also to make them read on. ‘Please help us to fight back’ this makes the reader want to carry on to see how they can help. There are also written in bold, which catches the reader eyes.
At the bottom of the article there is a candle surrounded by barbed wire, which symbolises hope and injustice. The logo is placed in the advert so that the readers can try and identify what is means.
In the beginning of the advertisement, the writer puts you in the situation, and asks direct questions to you. The use of rhetorical questions makes the reader think about the situations and it also makes the article more interesting to read. They appeal to the reader, to imagine it happening in the U.K. In this paragraph they make the police look like the ‘baddies’ ‘suppose you now learn that is the police themselves who are killing and torturing the children. What would you do?' This gives the reader a change o reflect on what they have read and to position themselves in the situation.
When you first think to yourselves, the police killing people…. It just doesn’t add up but then when you read that there were witnesses who saw the police killing these people it changes your view on the law ‘the bodies of children were found in a park in the capital city of a certain country. They had been horribly tortured before they died. Witnesses claimed that people who did it were police officers.’
The second paragraph is written in a less formal way ‘okay, your no firebrand…’ by using humour makes the reader feel like the advertisement is about a very serious matter, but it also has a humorous side to it.
Amnesty refer to the scandals where people pay MP’s to represent their views and ask questions in the house of commons. They say ‘nobody suggests they should be denied the right to advertise on radio or T.V.’ This makes us wonder why, certain people (whom have money) are allowed to voice their opinions while others who are not so financially supported are not.
There is a lot of emotive language in the article it is very effective. ‘…A man lay in a prison cell, his body a patchwork of bruisers and burns, his back raw and oozing pus where the skin was stripped off when he was dragged naked across a concrete yard. He had been beaten up, whipped and had savage shocks from an electric baton thrust into his mouth, his eyes and his anus.’ This sentence makes the reader picture the person having this torture done to them, which makes them realise the true extent of the torture.
The use of irony by saying ‘We don’t want to revolt to shock people…’ is a very good persuasive technique. Although the writer tries to get you on their side, as the reader, you know that all they really want is to get you to donate money to them. So by saying this they encourage the reader to read on.
All throughout the advertisement, the phrases used are designed to make the reader feel guilty e.g. ‘Do you want to stop these atrocities? If not, what hope is there for out so-called civilisation?’ Also ‘In this very instant, as your eyes pass across these words, innocent people all over the world are facing prison, torture and death.’ These sentences make you feel very upset and very guilty.
The last few sentences of the article tells you how your can personally make a difference to what is happening ‘joining Amnesty is the most effective way you can help them. Please do it today.’ The application form then follows this sentence so people can donate to Amnesty. They try and make you feel as if, if you do not donate then these killings would carry on.
In my personal opinion I think that this advert was very successful in persuading people to join Amnesty. I think they should not have been banned from making advertisements, as they are a very important organisation which save many innocent lives every day. The advertisement uses many different types of vocabulary, which can be understood by people aged fourteen and up. The only thing, which I think could have been improved in the advert, is the way in which they talk about politics. I think they talk about it too much, people who are reading the advertisement don’t want to know about politics, and they just want to know about the torture and how Amnesty helps them.
