Rhetorical Analysis

Upon first glance of this image, the eyes are drawn toward a young, dark complexioned child lay swaddled in a stained diaper without a left leg. He is sprawled upon several dirty pieces of the remains of a blanket. Lying amongst the battered blanket, the child presents an expressionless look upon his face. It appears that he feels no pain. what happened to him had no effect, and it is an expression that hurts. Another focal point of the image is the crib. It resembles a hospital bed rather than a place of warmth and comfort. The grimy, damaged metal bars lack the feeling of protection needed from the outside world. Another noticeable image in the illustration is the several hands that are throwing a “thumbs up.” These hands relate to the underlying text written in white, “Liking isn’t helping,” resembling the “like” symbol on social media. Each “like” remains without a desire to help the poor child. The intended message of the illustration confronts the flaw in society referred to as “Facebook philanthropy.” The underlying text supports the picture by explaining the idea that liking a picture in our society will never be enough. Instead, take a step away from the screen, walk out the door and make a difference in the world. Erik Vevroegen was responsible for the creative direction of the illustration. It was first developed specifically for the Crisis Relief Campaign in hopes to reach out to the world through the internet, magazines, and newspapers. It was used to encourage more people to volunteer in nearby cities and countries across the world. Erik has become a distinguished artist in the advertisement business. He is an absolute master in taking an illustration and knows exactly how to grab the attention of the reader. Through the creation of this picture, a social debate has risen. The reasoning behind the debate is based upon the saying “Liking isn’t helping,” which was created by Erik and used by the Crisis Relief Campaign. Images of poverty stricken people are posted all over social media sites. Help is the last thing provided by the users. Erik does an exceptional job forcing the readers to take notice of their actions. The readers recognize that they “like” the picture and continue scrolling through their news feed. It has been pointed out throughout the debates that this way of life is quite ineffective. It is unknown if assistance was ever provided to the less fortunate. If society continues in this path, it could lead to a dark …show more content…
He expanded the use of ethos to offend the credibility of the audience, more specifically, users of social media. They believe that once a picture is liked, other people will notice, therefore, creating awareness. With the creation and use of the illustration, he played on this idea. With the visual, he turned the idea completely around making it impact the credibility of the users. Imagine this, everyone “shares” and “likes” the picture of a starving child in desperate need of help. As a result, all the users would become aware of the cause. However, just because people become aware of something does not mean they will take action.The creator defines the reputation of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram users as a group of people unwilling to take one step away from the world of social media to acknowledge that “Liking isn’t helping” and it never will