Ludacris' and Mary J Blige's song Runaway Love tells the story of three girls as they transition through the common and unfortunate hardships of life. The song along with the artistic portrayal of the music video forces the reader to empathize with the family and social issues that each child is in. I would not say that this song or music video is arguing a specific point, but it is challenging people to watch the video and to change their perspective on young runaway children. The video does this using pathos to make the children seem more naive, innocent, and relatable.

The Runaway Love video first opens on what looks to be like an abandoned ally that show an expansive wall full of missing person's posters or reports. There are also many candles among the ground along with flowers, the type of flowers that would adorn a funeral ceremony. These images act as precursors for the serious tone that will continue throughout the video. The posters are self-explanatory because they let you know someone has runaway, however in combination with the candles and flower arrangements it seemed as if the first few images in the video were that of a memorial for the runaways that will not be seen again. This scene lets people know that this will not be a light and jovial video. It sets up the mood that Ludacris and Mary J.B. wanted us in to absorb the message. When Mary J.B. first starts singing it also cuts to images of the young girls looking longingly at the camera and all of the girls are alone outside. This makes it very clear to us that something is upsetting the girls and it correlates to how all of them are not at home. This makes the reader think about how the first girls we see do not have a happy home to go to, which alludes to the main three girls who do not come from happy homes. In these earlier images there is a blurry image of the Virgin Mary behind one of the displaced girls, this is an emotional and logic appeal to the reader to correlate the 'Virgin' Mary's innocence as something that her and the girl share. The beginning images set the foundation for the main girls so that it will already be in our heads that all these girls are victims or not at fault for what is about to come.

Moving to the first scene of the little girl Lisa she is alone in her room and on the wall we see an image of the Virgin Mary. Her home situation seems to be less than desirable due to images of her alcoholic mom who does not realize when her boyfriend comes in and starts to touch on the young girl Lisa. When the man comes in the room to touch on Lisa we see many stuffed bunnies and stuffed animals on her bed while he is about to molest her. Scenes with innocent children's toys and these heavy problems affect us deeply because it deals with rape and children, things that people are passionate about and a topic that always find a way to affect people personally. At the end of the scene, with one last sparing glance at her passed out mom Lisa decides to run away. As she is seen running on the street she is carrying a bag that seems almost too big for her, this emphasizes her small size and the fact she is only a little kid. As viewers we see her physical struggle and after her story we know her running away due to her emotional struggle. We empathize with her because she has been portrayed as the picture of helplessness. 

Looking on to Nicole who deals with an abusive alcoholic father, her first instinct is to hide under the bed as soon as she hears him. Personally this affects me because my parents, and a lot of other parents tell their kids to hide if there is an intruder. Often times the first place that is picked by children is under the bed. It is an obvious place but it is where we go to when we are trying to stay away from something scary. This scene could easily resonate with people who hid under the bed when they were scared as kids, this makes us relate to Nicole and feel her pain that much more. Later in the scene when her only friend is killed, by the bullet that was not meant for her, camera flashes down to the stuffed animal that also drops presumably at the same time the best friend is dropped. Death is one of those things that is guaranteed in life so everyone can think back to the person they felt was taken from them too early and relate to the girl's struggle and understand her desire to run away from all her problems. 

Lastly Erica is seen looking distressed in a clinic because she became pregnant at eleven. When shown with the boy in her scene it is portrayed that she is unsure and not comfortable with what she is doing. When the boy touches and kisses her she never looks happy, but scared. Since people often times look down on teenage mothers Ludacris wants people to sympathize with her naive and timid side rather than look at her as dumb and irresponsible. Towards the end of the video, Mary J.B. sings in a kind of 'lullaby' tone telling the girls she will run away with them. It seems as if they are looking to her for a since of direction, maybe because she is that positive figure for the girls that wants them to get away from their pain. Closing the video, Ludacris tells the girls and maybe some girls beyond the scree to image running away with him and everything being okay. Many missing persons posters float around him symbolizing the runaways that never came back. This music video lets the viewers emotionally tap into the hardships that the girls have to face, whereas the lyrics by themselves make you feel shocked and appalled rather than compassionate.

The lyrics of the song use the same appeals yet they shock us into attention more than anything. Ludacris starts of each of the girls stories off by adding 'little' in from of their names, which further reiterates their innocence and youth. He also repeats the concept of loneliness that each girl feels, "Lisa is stuck up in the world on her own, Forced to think hell is a place called home, Nothin' else to do but get some clothes and pack, Say she's bout to run away and never come back" (Ludacris). Each girl unfortunately in bad situations that make them feel like this alone and that they have no other choice but to run away. We know this from the diction Ludacris uses like 'forced' and 'nothin' else to do'. This is sad that girls at this age feel this way but even as the viewer we want them to runway to get out of their awful situations. The song itself invites you to run away, with the Mary J.B.'s smooth voice that reiterates subconsciously to the sad girls 'run away', even saying "I'll run away with you" (Ludacris). For them this is the last choice both the girls and the viewers are encouraged to understand why they have to get out of their situations.

When using Pathos the main goal is to affect your audience emotionally. This video was able to do that really well. It made me people feel shocked, saddened, and compassionate it used the struggles of innocent and naive young girls to break down the barriers people have up that make us judge before becoming understanding. By showcasing topics of runaways, alcoholism, rape, gun violence, and abuse we could not look down at the girls for wanting to run away because these are issues and dilemmas that adults would love to just run away from. The fact that these are young misunderstood girls made us want empathize rather than judge. We all wanted to run away from our problems after watching this, also the emotional appeals fully immersed us in their situation in order to give us that feeling.

