TOW #3 – A Vegan Lover (Visual Text)

PETA, or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, is an organization based in Virginia which aims to convert people to veganism all over the world in order to save the animals. This advertisement attempts to persuade those who are not vegan into abandoning meat and ordering a Vegetarian Starter Kit through the common desires of the general public. In this case, PETA focuses on the sex aspect mainly in regard of older males as well as females possibly in a relationship with one.

            The ad depicts a conventionally attractive woman in order to grab the attention of the audience. Her body language gives off the feeling of having just woken up, and she smiles at the camera as if to imitate that it is the viewer she is waking up next to. This generates an appeal to lust and desire since the majority of the intended audience would want to have the fantasy become a reality. The words, however, invoke the desire to go vegan for both men and women. For both sexes, the statement that meat can cause impotency causes them to feel either guilt (for men) or alarm (for women) since, in theory, there is a chance there will not be anything a woman to enjoy in a relationship if their partner consumes meat. As a result, a man may feel convinced to buy the Vegetarian Starter Kit, or the woman would feel compelled to buy a starter kit for either one of them. The colors, pink and blue, have a history of designating female babies from males in American hospitals. Because of this, PETA may be trying to target heterosexuality by mixing the two together, implying that the consumption of meat can greatly affect that sort of relationship. Heterosexual couples would, as a result, feel the most convinced by the ad into converting to veganism.

            Using certain colors and guilt invoking elements in the ad, PETA may have been able to create an acceptable argument. However, the claim itself seems a bit farfetched in comparison to personal experience. Before viewing the ad, no other sources would have ever suggested that meat could cause issues such as impotency which can lead to more skepticism toward the ad than agreement.