Reading DeLuca's article, "Making Waves" on image politics and environmental activitism, I thought about how often movements use images, shocking images, to make an idea stick with us. Like ASPCA ads against animal cruelty (Nope, can't link to a sad puppy photo). Or texting and driving. Or the World Wildlife Fund. Or any number of ads (warning, this link is a graphic). Organizations want to grab your attention among a steady stream of images.
A recent image campaign that is shocking is the anti-tobacco "Truth" campaigns (and funded by Phillip Morris in a settlement). In a 2005 article, the Citizens' Commission to Protect the Truth "...credits truth® with reducing the number of children and teen smokers by 300,000 from 2000 to 2002."The Commission was made up of every former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and
Welfare and Health and Human Services; every former U.S. Surgeon
General; and every former Director of the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention. In case you don't remember, check out this body bag video to see how shocking the Truth ads were:
Kevin DeLuca, “Making Waves,” Image Politics: The New Rhetoric of
Environmental Activism (New York, NY: Guilford Press, 1999): 1-24.
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