Visual Rhetoric Bandit

Rhetoric is the use of language to persuade others, and visual rhetoric therefore represents the use of images to perform the same function. We are constantly exposed to visual rhetoric when we read magazines, watch TV, or travel down a city street, in the form advertisements for products and services. These ads are created by corporations, non-profits, and the government, and their purpose is to provide information and/or persuade you, the audience, to pay attention and possibly become interested in their products or services. The non-profit called "The Shelter Pet Project" represents a collaborative effort between the U.S. Humane Society, Maddie's Fund, and the Ad Council in order to promote pet adoption from shelters as the first choice for prospective pet owners ("Campaign fact sheet"). The most visible product of this collaboration is the production of attractive and well-designed ads that present an argument for a mutually-beneficial relationship between the pet owner and the pet, without appealing to their sense of outrage over caged and suffering animals.

The Aesthetics of the Bandit Image

A first glimpse of the Bandit ad reveals a high resolution, close-up image of an adorable dog's face, which would tend to capture the attention of prospective pet owners and encourage them to spend more time viewing the ad. The close-up image of Bandit's face is a form of hyperbole,...

The attention of any viewers would also be captured simply by the aesthetic appeal of the image. The image is so well composed that its inclusion in a pet lover's coffee table book isn't hard to imagine.
The professionalism of the image's composition is based in part on the color scheme utilized. There are only five main colors incorporated into the image: tan, white, yellow, black, and pink. The simplicity of the color palette ads to the aesthetic appeal of the image and helps viewers quickly focus in on the essential components of the image, such as Bandit and the text. The color that dominates the image is tan, which is a neutral color communicating warmth, nature, and earthiness (Chapman). These attributes help to accentuate what Bandit has to offer a prospective pet owner. The fact that tan matches the coat color of Bandit only adds to the aesthetic appeal of the image. The background elements in the image are out of focus, which tends to encourage viewers to attend to those elements that are in focus. The background elements also communicate elegance and thereby act as a counterpoint to the image of animal shelters as poorly-funded shacks in bad neighborhoods. By placing Bandit in an elegant setting, the image communicates a message of what could be possible through pet adoption from a shelter. This message stands in stark contrast to past shelter ads depicting…