Rhetorical Analysis of Disturbia Advertisement

In a 2007 distribution of New Scientist, results were published from a study of how much violence is seen on television. The study declared that “by the time the average U.S. child starts elementary school he or she will have seen 8,000 murders and 10,000 acts of violence on TV.” This study sparked an argument about whether or not there is too much violence on television. Advocates against violence on television claims too much violence desensitizes children as they grow up causing them to become violent themselves because they don’t understand the consequences that are not shown in the media they watch. When viewed at the surface, a poster advertisement for the movie Disturbia advertises the movie; however, it’s arguable that the image has entered the fight against violence in the media. The poster uses differing colors between the lenses and background, emotional appearance on the teenager’s face, familiar objects resembling a homely suburb, and lighting on the boy’s face to show that today’s society has become desensitized to violence.

The image’s most prominent feature is the only part of the scene that has any color at all, the two orange lenses of the pair of binoculars. Through these orange lenses is seen a frightened woman whom is facing towards the viewer, but turned away from an ominous silhouette of a man holding what appears to be a knife a little ways behind her. After realizing the colored lenses are only part of the ad rather than the whole ad you notice that the background is all black and white. The main feature in the background is the face of a teenage boy filling the entire area. His face is completely void of any emotional characteristics, giving the feeling of him watching a show. He is lighted from the right causing the left side of his face to be thrown into complete darkness and the right in almost overwhelming brightness. The only other object in the image is an overlay of a few houses that appear to be part of a suburban neighborhood, this too is only black and white.

With almost the entire picture produced in black and white the first object seen is the orange of the binoculars’ lenses. The colorful nature of the lenses shows that whatever is in them is the most interesting part of the whole scene since the rest is colored in a boring black and white color scheme. The scenario found in these lenses happens to be a murder in progress, causing the viewer to think of the murder as the most entertaining aspect of the whole ad. This is a pathos appeal to fear because murders tend to cause fear for one’s life and panic in the human brain; however, the fact that this murder is in the only portion of the photo with color, causes the receiver to view it as an entertaining or thrilling moment rather than a horrific scenario.

The entertainment value is only reinforced when the teenager’s expression is analyzed. Contrary to surface analyzing, the blank face is the strongest argument against the use of violence in media provided by the image. By using the teenager’s blank facial expression, the advertisement portrays a television-watching styled face. The image uses this lack of emotion as a strong ethos appeal to show the insensitivity of our culture towards violence. Using the appeal, the scene argues that there is so much violence on TV, our culture has been desensitized to the point of being interested in watching an act as horrific as a cold-blooded murder. This begins a thought process of wondering how we as humans could ethically allow this to become part of our society.

In the past, our culture viewed violence as such an evil that it was to be kept out of the media and out of our everyday lives so that we could be happy and live in our perfect little world. The ad creates a metaphor between the time line of how society views violence with the light on the boy’s face. The light signifies the view society has about violence and the left of the image corresponds with a previous point in history when violence was not allowed in the media. The darkness being on the left of the boys face shows that violence used to be censored out of the media and it was viewed as an evil act to be willing to watch it; however, the teen’s face begins to become brighter on the right. The light on the right of the face argues that violence is now a perfectly acceptable form of entertainment for everyone.

Though violence has become an entertainment icon, the image creates irony with the suburban overlay. Middle-class families find a safe-haven in suburban neighborhoods that are assumed to be safe for their children to grow up; however, the advertisement argues, by placing the suburban overlay at the base of the ad, that suburbs have become the source of violence. As the study in New Science feared, the crime rate will rise because children are not finding the consequences of the violence seen on television. This creates a pathos appear directed at mothers because it spikes a fear of murders and violence happening in their own homes even in the safeness of a suburb. The aiming at protective mothers in this fashion is an attempt to reverse the desensitizing effects of violence on television by revitalizing the fear of violence in the people that can make a difference by keeping violence off the television.

Fear of violence is what is lacking in today’s society argues the advertisement. The image uses several tactics to convey it’s message against violence-filled media, including: lighting, colors, facial expressions, and familiarity. The lighting is used to show a change in society’s views towards violence; A difference between color and black and white areas is used to draw attention and show what parts of the ad are meant to be interesting; No emotion in the teenager’s face is used to show how he has no care that the woman is about to be murdered; finally, the image uses the familiar scene of a suburban neighborhood to appeal to the anxiety a worried mother feels when her children are in danger. All these tactics form a concrete argument against placing violence on television. Combine this and the research done showing how much violence children are watching, it’s a wonder how violence is only becoming more prominent in the media instead of regressing.