Visual Rhetoric Project Morgan Martin

Background Information  DAPA stands for diversity and personal activism.  DAPA is a program in which those involved develop workshops and trainings to get their audience to learn to appreciate diversity.  The goal of DAPA is to embrace diversity, promote unity, and create community.  This group is based out of South Florida and does work across the states.

What is the meaning of the ad? T he main idea of this ad is to bring to the audience’s attention that everyone is equal. No one is born with a label despite the label others give them as they mature. Every individual is different. That is what makes our world so unique and that should be appreciated. The ad is telling the audience to learn to embrace diversity in people and do not let the difference in personality change your opinion of a person. As a baby we are all equal and it should remain that way through life.

Who is the intended audience? T he intended audience for this ad would be anyone who labels others and lets those labels determine their opinions of that person. This could include people who are racist in the workforce, students who develop cliques in school, or simply judgmental people in general. On the flip side, this could also appeal to audiences that include people who have been labeled and work as an activist to put an end to it for future generations.

What is your attention drawn to in the picture? A t first site, your attention is most likely drawn to the words that are written on the baby’s body. Our attention is drawn to this because it is unusual for there to be writing on a baby. The words themselves also catch our attention. Given that words such as geek, pro-life, and loser are such strong words to be associated with a baby we develop interest for the topic.

Does elimination of the caption affect the meaning? Eliminating the caption in this picture would affect the meaning only in the eyes of the beholder. Some looking at the picture with the elimination of the caption would still understand the intended meaning. Others however would look at the picture and see a baby with labels and think that it is advertising that babies are born into what they are labeled. Overall, the caption definitely has a n affect on the meaning.

Logical Appeal The logical aspect of this ad is that we, as an audience know that babies are born as equals. They are not given a label at birth even as they mature the labels are not something they are born into it is something that others give them based on their own perspective of that person.

Ethical Appeal This ad is sponsored by DAPA, an organization for diversity and personal activism. This develops credibility. There are people that back up what is conveyed by this advertisement which is supported by the DAPA seal found on the picture.

Emotional Appeal By using a baby as the focal point of the ad it is appealing to the audience emotionally. It is a person’s instinct to think of a baby as innocent and in most eyes sweet. However, in this picture the baby is labeled as a geek, nerd, loser, pro-life, etc. That makes the audience feel sympathetic and question their opinion of others.

Work Cited DAPA. “Humans aren’t born with labels.” dapadiversity.com. Nd. Web. 6 Oct