Fabian Hernandez

Ms. Hoy

WRD-111

2 March 2014

                                                             Image/Text Analysis:

In the NRA’s efforts to debunk the Obama administrations attempts at gun control measures, they use a powerful video. The NRA argues in this video that the American people should be thinking more seriously about the things we should allow for the safety of our children while at school, and that Obama is hindering that extra measure of safety needed for our kids. They make this argument by using color, and emotionally charged statements and rhetorical questions.

The audience of this image is more geared towards the family man/woman. It is really aimed at anyone with a younger kid that is in school. With all of the school shootings it is a real threat that it could happen to any school and potentially any parent’s kids. The intended audience is persuaded by the ethos that the NRA holds with being the powerhouse of all things gun related, and feel they know what is best. The advertisement is really tailored to this specific audience and plays on their fears and pits them against the president’s anti-gun agenda, and his decision not to have guns in schools to protect the children.

For my analysis I will be focusing on one image taken from the NRA’s video campaign against the Obama administrations reluctance to put armed guards in schools. The picture depicts two children playing baseball with tall grass in the foreground and an American flag in the background. All of this scenery is shown in an eerie black and white color along with the huge words across the screen in white, saying, “ARE THE PRESIDENT’S KIDS MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOURS?” The words, “MORE IMPORTANT” are written in bright red and clearly contrast the black and white image.

When the video poses the question to the audience, the NRA is actually using pathos to make the reader think about their own kids and how important that they are to them. The NRA is asking them a rhetorical question that makes them feel anger that the president may think that his kids are more important than their own. It makes them wonder why their own kids aren’t held as high as the presidents children. This almost automatically has the audience side with the NRA.

While the question is showing in the image, the bold red letters stick out like a sore thumb, with somewhat hidden intent. The red coloring of the words are used to obviously emphasize the importance of the presidents kids being, “MORE IMPORTANT” than theirs but the use of red really shows the intent of the coloring. Red is the color usually used to represent anger, sometimes evil, and is most notably the color of blood. This gives insight into what the true intent of the color choice red was. It was meant to make the audience feel anger about the lack of importance placed on their kids by the president. It is also used to reflect the blood that could possibly be spilled if something were to happen to the audiences kids while at school unprotected. It raises the awareness of the dangers of the presidents declining of the movement to put armed guards in schools. The text could have been any color under the sun, but the decision to go with red was thought out and thought about. Blue represents calm and tranquility, but what good would that do to persuade?