The ASPCA commercial uses text slides and close up shots several times throughout the video to bring the viewers and animals into a closer proximity, convincing the audience through pathos to feel guilty for these suffering animals, causing them to base their judgement off of emotions rather than logic. Close up shots allow the audience to fully connect with the animals depressing emotions and circumstances on a personal level triggering the feeling of guilt on a deeper and more intense level. Text slides and close up shots are used consistently throughout the commercial to first convince the viewers to feel a sense of guilt, and then persuade the audience to react to this undermining emotion by helping out the organization and animals. 

Text slides are used as a form of dialogue to aid the audience in understanding the harsh reality of these animals through facts and statements presented throughout the commercial, resulting in audience feeling guilty. The first text slide is displayed in the opening scene of the commercial stating, “every hour an animal is beaten or abused”. This establishes a very realistic and intense tone, foreshadowing the sad and depressing emotions the audience will soon encounter throughout the rest of the commercial. Using a text slide in the very beginning of the commercial forces the audience to be engaged right away by making them actually read what is on the screen rather than hear it. Making the viewer personally read this harsh fact of reality automatically triggers a feeling of sadness and helplessness. The visual display of the text also emphasizes these melancholic feelings. The black background gives the viewer a sense of darkness and sadness, while the white text makes the information being conveyed clear and evident to the audience. Together, these colors add to the depressing emotions given off by the meaning of the text, and make the overall picture look clear and professional. The movement technique of slowly zooming in on the text is applied to the text slide in the opening scene to emphasize the effort to draw in the viewer even more. The words being presented in different sections give the audience a clear understanding of the message that is being conveyed by putting emphasis on specific words. For example, the first words displayed on the screen are “every hour”, stressing the point that animals being beaten or abused is very prevalent not only on a day to day basis, but on an hourly basis. This allows the audience to put into perspective right away how common this issue is, triggering the viewers to become vulnerable to this subject. 

Throughout the middle of the commercial, text slides that display facts and one’s that show obvious observations are integrated in between the animal videos to reiterate and emphasize the dismal emotions given off by the animals. This allows the audience to emotionally connect with the suffering animals and their unfortunate circumstances in different ways that include reading dialogue on the screen and observing the conditions of the different animals through close up videos. Having the audience constantly switch between the two different text slides and close up videos insure that the audience is not only engaged in the commercial but also fully understands the urgent need for help regarding animal abuse. The viewers having both factual knowledge and visual pictures and videos of the reality of these animal’s circumstances which results in a deeper emotional connection between the audience and the animal’s. This is exemplified in the commercial when a text slide that states, “they suffer alone and terrified” is put in between two animal videos. Even though these feelings are made obvious to the audience through the animal’s actions, switching up the format allows the viewer to catch this feeling of guilt from a totally different perspective.

Throughout the commercial the close up view allows the audience to see movement of the animal’s eyes, allowing the audience to experience a deeper emotional connection with the suffering animal’s. Since these animals are unable to communicate with the audience through dialogue, movement is used to convey their emotions. These close up shots visually draw the viewers in by the camera shot slowly zooming in on the animals face. The initial shot gives the viewer an idea of the bad conditions these animals live in. It is made clear to the audience that most of these animals live in small cages, alone, with no bedding, or food and water. The commercial does this intentionally to quickly trigger a sense of guilt inside the audience, especially those who are pet owners. As the camera zooms closer on the animal’s face, the viewers start to encounter the animal’s emotions through the movement in their eyes. The most apparent movement these animal’s display is in their eyes. The audience is instantly drawn to the animal’s eyes because sight is directly related to communicating with others. When the audience looks into these animal’s eyes the viewer can immediately feel the sadness, and helplessness these abandoned animals feel. For example, when many of the animals look down it makes the audience feel a sense of despair and loss of hope. When one of the cats looks up it immediately translates a feeling of hope these animals are looking for from the viewers. It is made apparent by the animals that they are begging for the audiences help. The commercial uses this technique of zooming in on every close up shot to convince the viewers to embody these emotions the animals are giving off. Close up shots of the different animals allow the audience to embody the feeling of guilt through visually seeing the conditions these animals live in along with their physical condition. While text slides blatantly state harsh facts of this issue that causes the audience to feel guilt from the reality of this issue in a universal perspective. The combination of both successfully trigger the audience to feel a sense of guilt once they recognize that they are the only ones who can make a difference in these animal’s lives. 

When the ASPCA supporter is talking, the text is used to reiterate the information she is verbally conveying to the audience in a clear, straightforward and visual way. By this point in the commercial it is assumed that the audience is emotionally vulnerable to these animal’s situations, therefore displaying the contact information at the bottom of the screen at all times allows the viewers to react right away to these feelings by donating. The information being displayed at the bottom of the slide in a clear, comprehensive way allows the information to be noticeable and prevalent while videos are being shown in the background. The information being presented in all white block letters makes the information clearly visible at all times, even with the colors constantly changing in the background. The contact number is displayed in large text making it the most noticeable because it is where the organization wants the viewer to go first since it is the easiest way to donate. By calling this number it makes the experience more personal to the audience rather than looking at a website with listed information. Above the telephone number, the website of the organization is listed in a smaller font, suggesting that this is another place the audience can reach out to. From the display of both, the viewer can recognize that the telephone number is the primary contact because it gives the organization another chance to convince the viewer to donate to the ASPCA. Text slides are used at the end of the commercial as a way to clearly display the number and website information throughout the whole second scene, convincing the viewers to donate by taking advantage of their guilt and vulnerability that was developed in the previous scenes. 

The ASPCA commercial uses a combination of different types of text slides and close up shots in a unique way to successfully convince the viewer to feel guilty for these animals who are victims of animal abuse, causing them to feel the need to donate. Text slides play a huge role in convincing the reader to develop these undermining emotions by using them to state harsh facts of reality to educate the viewer and to emphasize the emotions given off by the animal’s in the close up shots. Integrating these types of slides into the close up shots of the different animals allows the audience to become very emotionally engaged in this prevalent issue of animal abuse. The use of these different elements gives the viewer several different perspectives, convincing the audience to develop a sense of guilt in the beginning of the video and continue building upon that emotion throughout the rest of the commercial. 
