
The use of visual rhetoric was present throughout the music video, “Where is the Love,” by the Black Eyed Peas. Many rhetorical devices were used in this music video in order to convince the audience to feel empathy for the recent acts of terrorism and violence around the world. This can be seen through the use of eye contact, black and white coloring, and featured celebrities. 

The beginning of the music video opened with one man singing and making eye contact with the camera. The use of eye contact made the audience feel as if the singers were singing directly to them which gave the song a more personal feeling. Because the meaning of the song had a serious message, eye contact was an important rhetorical device. Eye contact was constant throughout the music video with every person that was featured. However, some of the people looked away from the camera, which showed that what they were singing about was a very sensitive subject that brought them a lot of pain. The use of eye contact helped to keep the attention of the audience and listen to the message that was trying to be conveyed. Eye contact is associated with telling the truth, so the audience is more likely to believe someone who is making eye contact rather than someone who is looking down or away. In order to convince the audience to support the cause, eye contact was constantly used to express the truth of what was being told and shown in the video. 

Another visual rhetorical device that was used was black and white coloring. The whole music video was done in black and white, which gave it a more depressed and serious tone. The black and white also represented death and violence that has been happening around the world. In between clips of the various singers and people, black and white images were shown. These images were very shocking and disturbing to see. The pictures were added with the intent to play into the audience’s pathos. Some of these upsetting photos were of dying children, war, police brutality, racism, and terrorism. The only color in the music video was a red question mark that was held up when they sang the lyric, “Where is the love.” The red question mark helped to emphasize the question. The red symbolized the urgency in the question and also love. At the very end of the video, a group of children stood together singing and held up the question mark signs. The children represented the innocence of the world and how they are helpless to all the violence that is happening around them. The use of black and white was important in order to make the audience feel empathy for the content of the music video.   

 Famous celebrities and singers were featured in the music video. This showed the audience that famous people care about all the terrible things that are going on in the world and helped to convince the audience that they should care too since their idols do. The people that were featured were very diverse in race and they had their own different styles and looks. This helped to show the audience that people are putting racism and discrimination aside in order to come together for a common cause. By using famous people, the video had more of an impact on the audience because celebrities have a great influence on people. This rhetorical device was very useful in convincing the audience to feel empathy towards the recent acts of violence. 

With each of these examples of visual rhetoric, the audience feels more emotions from this music video. The purpose of “Where is the Love” is to bring emotion to people in order for them to want to support the cause and stop violence around the world. The music video was very persuasive in making the audience aware of the rising acts of violence and feel sad and concerned enough to want to help stop it.  
