
The Syrian War has been an ongoing battle since March 2011, between the government and a rebel group. The war has caused over 470,000 deaths, one out of ten people have been severely injured, and over 11 million have been pushed out of their homes all in the last five years. Many think that this a Syrian war, therefore Syria should fight their own battles and other countries need to stay out of it. People are ignoring the conflict, and the effects that it has on the innocent. My advertisement shows the consequences the war has on the Syrians who are neutral in the war. The producer effectively convinces viewers that Syria needs assistance from other influential countries through the use of a young girl and realistic events paired with an emotional appeal.

The advertisement is geared to people who live outside of Syria, those who don’t know what is going. The headline of the of the ad is “What If This Happened to Your Country?” which triggers people to actually put themselves in the same shoes as the girl in the video. It makes viewers think do they really want to go through the same thing that the girl is going through or do they want their child, or family member to go through the same tragic events. 

The main focus of the video is of a young girl. The purpose of using a girl as the focal point instead of a young boy is because more people sympathize with girls. Especially in Middle Eastern countries because women are so confined to what a man expects of them. Also with using a girl that is young, signifies innocence. She is so innocent that she should not have to endure the wrath of the war, she does not deserve to live in those type of conditions. She resembles many other children that live in different countries, parents will resonate with the little girl because they will think of their own children. Even having a nameless girl allows parents to assimilate the young to their children. The people in the video are given names like Adam, Granny, and Mommy, therefore there is no accident that the girl, the main character, was anonymous.  

Although the girl is the main focus of the advert, the background/ her surroundings plays a significant role to appeal to viewers’ emotions. In the beginning of the video they use events that are highly relatable to an average person. The first scene is the girl having a birthday party, she is surrounded with her friends and family. A great selection of people celebrate their birthday with a party or some type of celebration. A birthday celebration is something that many people can relate with. Then she plays dress up in her mother’s clothes, puts on makeup, she hugs on a stuffed animal, plays on the playground, and goes to school. Those are some activities that many grown women would think back and say “Oh I’ve done that before!” or maybe “I remember when…”.  If they cannot share the same experiences they will at least think that she is like any other typical child.

Around thirty seconds into the video her surroundings begin to chance. Her family is franticly moving out of their house, based on the girl’s facial expression, this move was not a highly anticipated. She does not look thrilled about their new house, but she is content. Her new living arrangements are short lived when they are yet again rushed out of their house. This time around they do not pack the car, they did not have any belongings. From that point on the girl seems so disconnected from the video, she is emotionless. Now they do not have a home to live in, no medicine to aid the ill, no food, and no water. She has suffer from bombings that happen right behind her, losing her father, and confusion. The girl went from having everything that she needed, safety, food, water, shelter, to in a matter of thirty seconds to not knowing if she will make it overnight. The purpose of having a brief visual of her happy moments is to illustrate how fast this war effects people. 

All of the events of the war caused significant damage to the young girl. At the end of the advert, the girl is recused from the war, but she is still disconnected from life. She has no expressions on her face and when it was her birthday she did not have the same excitement that she did in the beginning of the video. A birthday is something that many kids are excited about because they get presents, have cakes, or at least they know that everything that day is about them. The girl has no excitement in her face, she looks defeated and traumatized from everything that just happened to her. 

Many innocent people are affected by the Syrian war, and those people go unnoticed by numerous countries. There are children whose life have been drastically changed in a matter of days, kicked out their homes, separated from their family, and faced near death experiences. The advert shows the consequences the war has had on young girl, and how it altered her life forever. In the beginning she was full of life and as time progresses she slowly becomes numb to the world around her. Although this is a production and not a true story, this is based on real life event, there and young boys and girls in the similar conditions as the character and some have it worse. 
