Rhetorical Analysis of Two PSAIt was interesting to read that the Keep America Beautiful ad was aired on Earth Day in 1971. I was not alive at that time, but pollution was a heavy issue at the time. The recent Canadian PSA was aired in 2006 and I feel focuses on the environment on a broader outlook. The Native American actor, Iron Eyes Cody, was a movie actor at the time. It was interesting to find out that he became the face of environmental consciousness in the 1970's. The reason that Public Service Announcements started being aired was to get the general public's attention on issues going on in the world. These ads are on common ground in the effect to catch the viewer's attention, but ...view middle of the document...
I am sure that nowadays plugging people into drastic looking conditions is not as expensive as it once was, but it is a technology that did not exist when Keeping America Beautiful was aired. I don't think that the PSA budget has anything to do with the effectiveness of the ad. We can see proof of this in the drug PSA that shows the egg frying in a pan. That ad required an egg and pan and in my eyes was probably the most effective PSA I, personally, have ever watched. Regardless of the PSA budget, it is the message that is portrayed to the public that matters the most.The audience of the PSA mattersTarget audience is probably the highest priority in commercials. There is a reason that you don't see beer commercials on Nickelodeon and why toy ads don't appear on ESPN. The ad is meant to catch the attention of the age group that will most likely be the viewers. I believe the bigger the target audience, the effective an ad will be. In my opinion, Keeping America Beautiful has a much broader target audience than the Canadian PSA. I believe that Keeping America Beautiful could catch the attention of a five and ninety five year old. The ad is very simple and I think a 5 year old could watch this and understand that littering can destroy America. I think the message clearly states that littering is bad and that is can be stopped by only us. In comparison, the Canadian PSA I feel has a higher educated target audience due to the global warming subject. I know that when I was much younger that I would have had no clue what global warming even was, much less understand what this PSA was even trying to say. Again, I don't think that this has a direct effect on if gets the message across, I just feel that it is targeting a high school age and up audience. I saw the egg in a frying pan ad when I was very young, and there is a reason I remember it. It was a very simple PSA, yet caught my attention to remember 25 years later. Target audience is an important factor and although these ads are portraying the same general message, there is a significant difference in the audience these two Public Service Announcements are capturing.Two different similar messagesWikipedia defines a Public Service announcement as "messages in the public interest disseminated by the media without charge, with the objective of raising awareness,...