The collaborative effort between the Humane Society, Maddie's Fund, and the Ad Council has resulted in a series of professionally-designed visual advertisements that seek to emphasize the mutual benefits of shelter pet adoption, from the perspective of both the pet owner and the pet. The traditional benefits of pet companionship, including loyalty, comfort, and warmth, are communicated through the image, alongside messages that the owner has something important to offer the shelter pet. Although the latter is communicated mainly through an anacoluthon pun, the point is valid despite being packaged in an anthropomorphic message. This approach stands in stark contrast to shocking photos of caged animals that tend to prey upon the viewer's distaste for suffering, and therefore deemphasizes the nature of the shelter's existence to the point of irrelevance, as it should.
Visual Rhetoric
Bandit
Rhetoric is the use of language to persuade others, and visual rhetoric therefore represents the use of images to perform the same function. We are constantly exposed to visual rhetoric when we read magazines, watch TV, or travel down a city street, in the form advertisements for products and services. These ads are created by corporations, non-profits, and the government, and their purpose is to provide information and/or persuade you, the audience, to pay attention and possibly become interested in their products or services. The non-profit called "The Shelter Pet Project" represents a collaborative effort between the U.S. Humane Society, Maddie's Fund, and the Ad Council in order to promote pet adoption from shelters as the first choice for prospective pet owners ("Campaign fact sheet"). The most visible product of this collaboration is the production of attractive and well-designed ads that present an argument for a mutually-beneficial relationship between the pet owner and the pet, without appealing to their sense of outrage over caged and suffering animals.
The Aesthetics of the Bandit Image
A first glimpse of the Bandit ad reveals a high resolution, close-up image of an adorable dog's face, which would tend to capture the attention of prospective pet owners and encourage them to spend more time viewing the ad. The close-up image of Bandit's face is a form of hyperbole, because it exaggerates the most appealing aspect of Bandit. The attention of any viewers would also be captured simply by the aesthetic appeal of the image. The image is so well composed that its inclusion in a pet lover's coffee table book isn't hard to imagine.
The professionalism of the image's composition is based in part on the color scheme utilized. There are only five main colors incorporated into the image: tan, white, yellow, black, and pink. The simplicity of the color palette ads to the aesthetic appeal of the image and helps viewers quickly focus in on the essential components of the image, such as Bandit and the text. The color that dominates the image is tan, which is a neutral color communicating warmth, nature, and earthiness (Chapman). These attributes help to accentuate what Bandit has to offer a prospective pet owner. The fact that tan matches the coat color of Bandit only adds to the aesthetic appeal of the image. The background elements in the image are out of focus, which tends to encourage viewers to attend to those elements that are in focus. The background elements also communicate elegance and thereby act as a counterpoint to the image of animal shelters as poorly-funded shacks in bad neighborhoods. By placing Bandit in an elegant setting, the image communicates a message of what could be possible through pet adoption from a shelter. This message stands in stark contrast to past shelter ads depicting caged animals in overcrowded and impersonal conditions (Barribeau). The Shelter Pet Project advertisements therefore emphasize the benefits of pet ownership, without preying upon the viewer's sensitivity to suffering animals.
Bandit's Confession
Only two colors are used for the text: white and yellow. The white text is limited to the main message and yellow appears to be used for contrast and emphasis. The largest font size in the image represents a message from bandit that states "She snores more than I do, but I still love my human." ("Bandit"). This message represents an anacoluthon element because it conveys an impossible event, such as dogs talking. This statement humanizes Bandit and thereby allows the viewer to glimpse the anthropomorphic world of pet owners. This 'confession' by bandit also communicates possibility of loyalty, trust, understanding, tolerance, and by virtue of the bedroom setting, comfort, intimacy, and shared privacy.
Mutually-Beneficial Relationship
Bandit's confession reverses the viewer's cognitive orientation from the pet owner's to that of the pet. This cognitive orientation is further emphasized by the text stating "A person is the best thing to happen to a shelter pet" ("Bandit"). The combination of the two messages suggests the possibility that a mutually beneficial relationship could be created by adopting a pet from a shelter. The Bandit advertisement therefore points out how an adopted pet might enhance the viewer's life and the life of the shelter pet, without resorting to accusations of indifference and shocking images of suffering pets housed in a shelter. The main yellow text communicates the action the viewer needs to take in order to form this mutually beneficial relationship -- adopt.
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