Pathos At Its Best

This week in class we discussed pathos, which is the appeal and emotion of the audience.  The commercial below is for the Christian Children’s Fund, now also known as the ChildFund, an organization that helps deprived children in developing countries.  The organization raises funds to give the children such as clean drinking water, nutritional programs, education programs, and vaccines and healthcare.

This commercial is a great example of ethos because it reaches through to the audience in an emotional tone.  Seeing the video footage of where the children are being raised truly will break your heart.  You will start to feel such sympathy for the children and then at the same time guilt because of all the things you take for granted that these children will never have the chance to have. 

The ChildFund uses pathos to reach out to the audience’s emotions to get you to contribute to the cause for the sake of the children.  These emotions you start to feel when watching the commercial and footage of the lives of these children are the reason why you are so pulled into the organization and making the donation.  And if you choose not to donate, a sense of guilt is hanging over your head for the rest of the day when you have such easy access to food, water and shelter, something these children do not have. 

The ChildFund’s pathos is a technique that is perfect for their ad campaigns.  Showing the audience really footage of these young children’ lifestyles really touches the hearts of the viewers and makes them want to make a donation—which ultimately is their goal.  And in this case, they succeed with their use of pathos.