Child Health Foundation- The Scream

    

           It is unquestionable that child abuse affects thousands of children daily. To put this into perspective, 3.3 million cases of child abuse are reported in the United States every year. This image is yet another advertisement displaying the horrors of child abuse. The Child Health Foundation, a non-profit, public charity to prevent and treat life-threatening communicable diseases of infants and children, released this advertisement to continue their efforts to end the fight against child abuse.

The exigence of this ad is simply that children are being abused. Even though this ad specifically states that in Germany, over 100,000 children are being abused, the power of the Internet has made it so everyone has access to this breathtaking picture. The overarching purpose of this advertisement is to make people aware of how prevalent child abuse is, and to inform those on what to do if they suspect anyone of domestic violence. Therefore, it is only logical that the audience for this image is the general public with a specific target on those  being abused or who are seeing abuse occur.

There are several rhetorical elements in this image; however, the most prominent are pathos and logos. Pathos is clearly displayed in the body of the girl. Looking clearly, there is an allusion to Edvard Munch’s The Scream painting. The painting helps to portray how horrifying child abuse really is. The use of a small, skinny, bony child also helps appeal to emotions because she already looks very frail, and adding additional abuse makes it seem as if she will crumble any second. This appeal helps bring pity and remorse for children who are abused daily. Seeing this ad also prompts people to think of the children around them who consistently have marks and scars on their bodies. It is not worth protecting a friend or family member if they purposely injure children. Wondering how they can prevent this from happening leads to the next appeal of logos. In the bottom right hand corner of the ad, there is a statistic and what to do if you suspect abuse. The use of logos assists the pathos in attaching numbers to child abuse that support the emotional appeal as well as provides the answers for the question brought on through the pathos. This logical appeal makes the topic seem more real, and that it is not just a national problem, but an issue everywhere. Lastly, considering this is visual text, it is important to recognize the colors being used in this image to assist the purpose. In order to create the horror that the body conveys, the background is pitch black. Clearly there would be an emotional difference if the background were yellow rather than black. The dark color certainly adds that extra punch to the image. Also, the use of pink to highlight the information box makes it seem like there is a loving, motherly, hope in the contacts present in the box. It is almost like there is a light at the end of the dark tunnel.

            Overall, I do believe the author achieved his or her purpose in making people aware of how prevalent child abuse is, and to inform them on what to do if they suspect anyone of domestic violence. Through an emotional, logical, and visual appeal, the author created a horrifying scene that is terrible to look at, but hard to pull away from.