RATE THIS EXAMPLE FROM "BENEFICIAL" TO "HARMFUL"
BENEFICIAL HARMFUL
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COVID-19 vaccination campaign
Background Information
The campaign for this example was a nationwide effort to encourage adults to get vaccinated from the COVID-19 virus, with the initiative led by Cleveland Clinic and Mayo Clinic. The target audience of this campaign would be unvaccinated adults; more specifically, individuals who are hesitant to receive the vaccine, racial and minority ethnic groups, and residents of rural communities. The message of this campaign is to reassure the public that vaccines are safe, effective, and necessary in order to achieve total immunity and return to normal activities. This example can be classified by the genre of both digital and print advertisement. In terms of media, this campaign includes media outreach, social media, an awareness video, and an informational website.
Technique Used
Activate Emotion
This is propaganda because
This campaign is an example of propaganda because it demonstrates a deliberate attempt to shape perceptions and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the message conveyed. The ethos within this campaign is established in the statement, “the nation’s top healthcare organizations agree- COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective.” This statement entails that there are multiple medical professionals that support the purpose of this campaign, and therefore this example demonstrates great strength in terms of credibility. Why not agree to something that several healthcare organizations can confirm is safe and effective? The pathos within this campaign is established in the phrase, “SAVE LIVES.” These two words are clearly the focal point of the campaign, as they are set to a font much larger than the rest, and are also the words that hold the most emotional weight. The authors of this campaign specifically chose to use these words in order to activate an emotional response; once the audience reads that they have the potential to contribute to a good cause, the act of getting the vaccine becomes more appealing. I think logos is present within this example as well, by incorporating the hashtag, “ourshot2savelives,” in order to appeal to the latest media trends. Overall, I find this campaign to be a more beneficial piece of digital rhetoric as opposed to harmful, because it is strategically designed to incorporate elements of appeal, credibility, and logic, and makes no offensive or potentially triggering remarks in getting its message across.
Out of all the propaganda you chose, I took great interest in the army recruitment one. By diminishing one's character through recruitment, how does the Army expect to gain people to risk their own lives fighting for a country that laughs at many stigmas related to their generation? Out of all the examples, I rated very similarly to others and it shows that many of the advertisements are truly harmful to the viewer. The propaganda demonstrated that the true nature is to poke at an opposing side. I personally feel that the intention of this is to create a form of motivation to respond back. I believe that this is counterintuitive as it really diminishes motivation instead.
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