
Visual media is an extremely effective outlet to create a conversation, call to action, or create an emotional response in the viewer. It has been used throughout history for in many ways; one important use of this media is for political causes. Though propaganda is often labeled as false promotion, the idea can still be used to promote a cause with just means. This form of advertising is successful because art uses the ability of projection and real life occurrences of each viewer to create an emotional experience. The World Wildlife fund has promotes environmental reform through the use of a series of creative propaganda that show photo shopped images that produce arouse awareness of environmental conditions. By looking at the forest lungs photo from the Champaign set the use of color, symbol, and human experience can be analyzed to depict an effective form of promotion. 

Colors hold subconscious meaning in the human psyche. It is the easiest and simplest way to set a scene or produce an emotional response. The response to colors is also almost uniform throughout the world. For example, in the united states, traffic signals use colors rather than words to convey their meaning. Green means go, yellow means cation, and red means stop. The human brain process colors and reacts immediately. This is why color choice is important in artwork. A color palate can set the entire mood for a piece of work and is the simplest way to convey the desired emotion. The World Wildlife Fund uses this idea with the tree lung photograph. Trees are naturally the color green which represents prosperity and health. Soil is also naturally brown colored; brown often represents lack of cleanliness or sickness. The campaign takes advantage of these color conceptions and uses them in order to produce the emption of fear. They use the green as the dominant vegetative backdrop but have a section of the lung shaped forest depredated and colored a pale brown which resembles unhealthy soil, deforested and scorched land. The eye catches the patch of brown because it is the main focal point and the greatest area of contrast. Shades of green, brown, and blue are the only colors used in this photograph; this adds simplicity and helps to highlight the importance of the colors. Blue is used as a formality for the sky but the use of the extreme contradictory colors green and brown is important to create the fast reaction. 

The forest area is rendered into the shape of lungs. This is a creative use of symbolism. It has both literal and figurative meaning. Trees are important to the ecosystem for their photosynthetic properties, they convert carbon dioxide into sugar for the plant and release oxygen back to the atmosphere. Because of this they are vital to human health. Without trees the atmospheric composition would not be livable to humans. They produce the air that we breath and are the filtering lungs of the ecosystem. 

By combining the symbolic use of lungs and the color choices the photograph represents as cancerous lung. In comparison to a human lung the green portion represents the healthy area of the organ where the brown depicts the dead or cancerous region. This parallel aspect of the photo is effective because cancer is a prevailing cause of illness and touches many lives. It is also fitting because with the degradation of forests there is also an air quality decline that can lead to negative health effects. 

In the sixties there were many advertising companies that were promoting cigarettes or exposing their defects. During this time there were many deniers of the health problems they caused. The current state of the world is in a similar period with the notion of climate change. This gives interesting historical perspective to the paralleling ideas. 

The photo would not be effective if it did not use human experiences to create the emotional response represented in the photo. Every human has their own lungs. They therefore can project themselves onto the media. This changes the degradation from and environmental or ecosystem ailment to a personal illness. It creates an environment where the viewer can no longer see it as an external condition but it is now internal and effecting them directly in every way. The ability to create a intimate experience on this topic helps the cause to promote immediate change.   

The World Wildlife Fund campaigns are extremely powerful and use the use of color, symbol, and human experience in all of their advertisements. By combining all of these tools they are able to produce effective material on a sensitive subject. The tree lung photograph is a unique example of positive and successful propaganda. With just a glance the picture is able to produce a human instinct of fear, sadness, grief, and hope. As with cancer, deforestation and ecosystem degradation can be fought.  The underlying message is that the problem is real but that it is reversible and that is why the world wildlife fund is promoting climate change. The actions of those who view this photograph can have a major impact on the future of the world. They are able to use artistic tools to produce a powerful message and depict it in a creative way. This ad is a great representation of the successful use of artistic principals to evoke a universal emotional response. 
