Preliminary Thoughts Blog Post

In my first paper assignment I thought I would tackle a controversial PETA ad, which is offensive to anyone who may consider themselves overweight or anyone is not a vegetarian. In this particular PETA ad, the back ground is a blue sky, sand, and water, which is of course the beach. To the right there is the back of a large white woman in a red polka dot bikini. In huge white letters the ad says "Save the Whales" and below that in red the ad states "Lose the Blubber: Go Vegetarian". I about fell off of my bed and onto the floor when I came upon this ad. Not only is it targeting overweight people, it is targeting people who aren't vegetarians and essentially saying "If you aren't vegetarian, you're fat and you need to lose weight by becoming a vegetarian". This, to me, is possibly the most ridiculous advertisement I've ever seen. In my head, I am wondering if PETA really thinks that this is going to work and I wonder if they realize it could potentially anger a large amount of people. In this advertisement, the rhetorical appeal represented in this piece of media is pathos. This ad appeals to one's emotions because self-image goes hand in hand with emotion. One's happiness is often determined by their positive or negative body image. One might think this ad would be very effective because if you are calling someone fat, and it hurts their feelings then ultimately they will change and become a vegetarian. But then again people use their own logic, and think "just because I'm not a vegetarian doesn't mean that I am fat". In a sense, this piece of media also appeals to logos but not intentionally. PETA didn't realize that this ad may rub people the wrong way, even offend them and push them away from being a vegetarian because PETA supports it. Accidentally, they appealed to the logic of the public and now have potentially ruined their own ad. Because this ad is so dramatic, so far fetched and flat out ridiculous it appeals to peoples logic by making them realize the ad is ridiculous and completely untrue. Yes, people may lose weight by being a vegetarian and vegetarians may be on average smaller or skinnier than people who aren't vegetarians, but that doesn't mean that if you aren't a vegetarian that you are automatically fat. Some of the roadblocks I must overcome between now and actually writing my first paper assignment are making a persuasive argument against PETA and their ridiculous ad, backing up my argument that PETA is wrong and hurtful in their ad, which is in the form of a HUGE billboard, and convincing the readers of my paper to feel the same way I do. In my opinion, no one could possibly agree with this ad but then again someone obviously agrees with it because the idea was thought up, drawn out, paid for, and put up for everyone to see. I guess this shows the many different people in this world but I plan to convince everyone to feel the same way I do.