Every Child Needs a Family Emily Certain’s Visual Rhetoric Presentation

Background info. This picture conveys the helplessness of children in our everyday world. Families represent love, care, homes, clothing, food, and other aspects that children need in their lives.

Background info. Con’t unicef is a global Humanitarian Relief organization for Children. Their main goal is to do whatever it takes to save a child. Unicef provides children with health care, clean water, nutrition, education, emergency relief, and more.

Reaction What did you first think when you saw this picture? What were your primary reactions? Did you have any secondary reactions? My original reaction to this picture was very emotional. As in, I almost swelled up with tears. I thought about how some children in this world don’t have parents, and seeing this little girl, I thought that she doesn’t even know what parents are supposed to look like, feel like, act like, etc. My secondary reaction was that I told myself to just think that this girl lost her parents in the store and are trying to find them. This helped me regain my composure.

Symbolism The largest example of symbolism is obviously the mannequins staging as parents The font symbolizes that a child wrote it, and believes that they need parents as well

Juxtaposition The juxtaposition in this photo is the small child against the large mannequins. Also the difference in their skin color.

Font The font in this visual is very important. Since is looks as a child wrote it, we know that adults aren’t the only ones who feel that “every child needs a family.” A child wrote this, which means that they know that they need a family. They know that they are missing a vital piece of their life. They know that something is missing.

Appeal: Logos The logical appeal is that it makes people think what children are like around the world who have no idea about parents or parental figures in their lives.

Appeal: Ethos Unicef is working in over 150 countries as a global humanitarian relief organization, so many people around the world know about them. Unfortunate children are not just a problem in America. They’re everywhere.

Appeal: Pathos I believe that Pathos is the most dominant appeal. At least, it is to me. My heart ached for this little girl the second I realized what she was doing. Other people feel sympathy towards her because they realize that she is less fortunate than they are.

Audience The audience of this picture is anyone looking at visuals through a magazine, online, on billboards, etc. The audience could also be any unicef supporter, designer, fan, etc.

Vantage Point Vantage Point is the angle or position that a photo was taken at. This photo was taken almost head on, or directly in front of the store window. What would this photo lose if it was placed at a different angle? (far away, the back of the mannequins, etc.) If the vantage point was changed, I think that we would lose a lot of this pictures meaning. If we were looking at it from far away, we probably would not be able to read the writing, and think that the little girl just wants to be in the shop window and examine the mannequins. If we were looking at the scene from behind, we would also think the same thing.

Layout Foreground: we see the text “every child needs a family” in a childs handwriting, on a store window. Background: we see the 2 mannequins, the little girl, and a short glimpse of the store Omission: what we don’t see, is the little girls real parents, or the rest of the store. Which really contributes to the photos overall meaning.

Extra Thought to Ponder Did you ever once think about how a single or divorced parent would feel about this visual? I have no experience with either, but I think that they would disagree with the text greatly. Why so? I think that a single or divorced parent would not like the meaning of this visual for one very specific reason. Single/divorced parents work VERY hard for their children. Multiple jobs, late nights, all of the responsibilities of parenthood, without a spouse to share it with.

Bibliography Picture: really-cool-advertisements/