How often do people see advertisements? More than likely they see them more than they want to. Advertisements provide a source of income for companies and they're not going away any time soon. One type of advertising involves promoting organizations, such as the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF). One of the main animals represented by the WWF is the panda. The panda is easy to market because of its cuddly and attractive appearance, which is much more appealing to consumers. Blue fin tuna, on the other hand, are ugly and not easily marketable. Although blue fun tuna are one of the most endangered species on the planet many people have no way of knowing.
The WWF uses an interesting way of portraying the blue fin tuna in their advertisement. The advertisement depicts a blue fin tuna with a panda mask edited over its head. This is meant to appeal to the emotional aspect of consumers. The advertiser also uses text placed within the image saying "Would you care more if I was a panda?" Utilizing text like this is meant to make the consumer think about the morality of caring more about something due to its "cuteness" rather than its population reaching dangerously low levels. Another idea utilized by the creator of the ad is the fact that news broadcasters show pandas much more often than blue fin tuna. Blue fin tuna just aren't an appealing item to broadcast in order to make money.
Another utilized aspect of the advertisement is the color chosen. As stated by the Gorilla Ad agency "Blue stands for cool, trust, belonging, and reliability." The entire advertisement is in a blue color with dim lighting, which is meant to imply the dim outlook for the blue fin tuna species. Since blue is meant to represent belonging there is some irony involved because the blue fun tuna are becoming extinct, instead of belonging in the habitat they're supposed to be in naturally. Furthermore, the text inlaid in the picture makes one think twice about ignoring the ad, and even tugs on some "heart-strings." Humans care more about pandas due to their appearance, blue fin tuna on the other hand are much uglier in appearance and not nearly as attractive to the majority of a population. The advertisement is set under the water where pandas don't even exist, but blue fin tuna do. This further shows that blue fin tuna are not able to be seen plainly like pandas can be in an open zoo for example.
Overall, the advertisement used by the World Wildlife Foundation uses a combination of techniques to appeal to the reader of the print advertisement. Color plays an important role in the gravity of the situation; by using the color blue the consumer feels that the blue fin tuna should belong and not be extinct. The text inlaid in the advertisement is used to bring emotions out of the consumer and make them feel the unfairness to the blue fin tuna species by placing a panda mask on the fish. All the techniques used compliment the advertisement and help to prove the point that we can't just overlook an entire species because it isn't as cute as another species.
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| The advertisement I analyzed. Image from WWF |
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