TOW #22 Visual

   Since the horrible shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary a year and a half ago, gun control has been a high profile issue in American society. Shortly after the tragedy, the organization behind this ad campaign, Moms Demand Action For Gun Sense in America, was formed. I saw this ad a while ago and found it striking. The image combines effective appeals to pathos and logos in order to argue for stricter gun control.
   The main device used by this ad is juxtaposition. The two items the children are holding, a Kinder Surprise egg and an assault rifle, are not items that would usually be seen together. The Kinder Surprise egg, next to the large, black, frightening gun, looks completely harmless. And yet the audience knows that the chocolate eggs are banned in the US for child safety while guns are not.
   The ad is made more powerful by the fact that the gun is held by a child. The disturbing idea of a little girl holding an assault rifle appeals to the emotions of the audience, attempting to convince them of the urgency of the need for gun control. The serious faces of the children and the familiar but dull, shadowy schoolroom surroundings add to this disturbing atmosphere. Also, the stark text above the children's heads contributes to this sense of urgency with its white and red font and all capitals.
   This text points out the irony of the situation by inviting the audience to pick which one of the items has been banned for the safety of children. The creator of the ad can assume that most people reading the ad will know that Kinder eggs are illegal in the US because of their potentiality to be choking hazards for small children. The audience is then forced to look at the much, much more dangerous item and recognize that it is legally sold despite the much more potent danger it poses for children in American society. Making an effective appeal to logos, the ad argues that if we outlaw chocolate eggs because the small plastic toy inside could be a choking hazard, then it certainly follows that we should outlaw assault rifles that can and have killed not just children, but people of all ages.
   As a supporter of gun control and also as someone who used to eat Kinder eggs as a kid, I found this ad compelling because it laid out clearly ideas that I already agreed with. However, the logic of this argument cannot be argued even by someone who holds the opposite biases of me, which is what makes it so effective. The idea that chocolate eggs are outlawed for child safety while lethal weapons are not is absurd and cannot be disputed. This ad combines juxtaposition and an ironic situation with visual and verbal elements of urgency and danger to not just call for, but, as it says in the bottom right hand corner, demand action for gun control.