Somewhere In America Rhetorical Analysis

Everyone who owns a television has seen the “Somewhere in America” commercial, which was published by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, at least once. This commercial is full of emotions and most people, “Always change the channel because they can’t take it anymore,” (McLachlan). Most of the depressing aspects of this commercial is the pictures because the dogs and cats are all beaten up and suffering from something. As a matter of fact, they are trying to make the audience feel sympathetic so they can join the ASPCA. The ASPCA tries to encourage audience monetary donation by using ethos by their tone, logos and pathos from the pictures and the statistics.
The intended audience for the Somewhere in America commercial is primarily old people and pet lovers. The reasons why this commercial is strongly targeting the old people rather than the younger people is because older people tend to have more money and are more vulnerable. They would have the extra cash to lend to the helpless animals that they see in this commercial. In addition, another group of people that this commercial targets are people that love pets and animals. When …show more content…
The actor who speaks on the behalf of the ASPCA, is Sarah McLachlan. She is an animal rights activist and supporter. So to say, she knows a great deal about animal rights which made her perfect for this commercial. In addition to having McLachlan as an actor, ethos is also shown through the pictures. The pictures that they show are of real animals that are beaten and neglected. This adds to the credibility because it provides the audience with proof that this actually happens to animals and they are in desperate need of your help, especially your donation. With all this being said the ethos in this commercial is very much present through the animal rights activist that’s the actor and the