Although Charity appeal is a sub-category of Advertisement, its approach and purpose are different from general Adverts.
Let's check out the key points that must be checked when analysing this type of text.
A. Persuasiveness: How persuasive is it? The purpose of charity advertising is to get readers to take action in the form of money or time. In addition, it also has the purpose of appealing to interest in specific social issues. When analysing a charity appeals text, you should first focus on all types of persuasive literary techniques used in the text.
B. Pathos: Charity appeals appeal to emotions and empathy more than regular advertising. It seeks to elicit empathy and engagement from readers by appealing to emotions such as anger, pity, guilt, and compassion.
C. Hard-hitting: Similar to regular advertising, the technique used by charity appeals is to actively use visual elements that will grab readers' attention and leave them in their memories for a long time. Analyse whether powerful visual or verbal devices are used to create effective and impressive charity appeals!
D. Credibility: Charity appeals must create a more trustworthy impression than any other advertisement. Since the purpose is to request donations or actions without compensation, it is necessary to check the use of contents such as factual information and statistics so that readers can feel trust in the text contents and even take action, and analyse the effects of these contents.
E. Metonymy: This is one of the unique features used by Charity appeals. Appealing to solve huge social problems such as hunger or poverty can be ambiguous and burdensome to readers, so charity appeals often appeal to a specific person or event as a representative, while appealing to realism and specificity in donations and volunteering.
F. Direct address: Charity appeals use words like ‘you’ or ‘we’ in the text. Not only dictionaries but also images often use direct addresses like this. Visual direct address also gives the impression that the person in the advertisement is making eye contact with you. The effectiveness of this skill is to create a strong, emotional connection with the reader.
Following is a charity appeal text from a past paper and its analysis for paper 1 essay writing,
do check the quality of analysis!
Intro
Title: “Cold Weather Alert”
Author/institution: Crisis
Text type: charity appeal
Publisher: The Guardian
Date: 2011
Audience: citizens of the UK
Thesis: Through effective use of layout, font, and visuals, the organisation appeals and persuades the audience to donate to homeless people.
B1: Layout/structure
Subtitles continuously appealing its agenda and determination to the audience
Text box to provide information about “Crisis”, emphasise 40 years → build credibility
Directly addressing: “you”, “we”
John’s anecdote → strongly appeals to pathos and heart-hitting
B2: Font
Bolding to emphasise the urgency and certainty
“Just a few pounds” → metonymy: Persuade the audience that it wouldn’t cost much to help the homeless people
“We know that it works” → solemn and certain tone
“We need your help – and we need it urgently” → sincere tone; urgency
“Please reserve a place” → pleading for donation, appeal to pathos (pity)
Handwritten font for “thank you” → sincerity
Black and white contrast b/w “We’re planning to take on homelessness this Christmas, will you?” and “Cold weather alert” → contrast between the situations of the audience and homeless people?
B3: Visuals
Plain folks (image of John) → appeals to pathos, “authentic”
Snowflakes → winter, cold, but also positive connotations such as transformation, bringing (positive) change
Gift card → gifting new opportunities
Conclusion
Effective use of devices, structure, visuals, dictions, etc
→ appeal to pathos (pity to persuade audience to donate), logos (explaining the reason why the readers should donate), and ethos (information about Crisis to build credibility)
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