Commercials serve many purposes for their audience. Whether it be to influence someone to purchase a product, or to advertise for a new movie release, commercials serve to persuade someone to do something. Advertisers are able to persuade and extend to a greater audience with the right amount of ethos, logos, and pathos, making the commercial more effective. Commercials are able to persuade the audience to the argument being presented by using pathos to apply to one's emotions, logos to show evidence, and ethos to show credibility. In the BC SPCA End Animal Cruelty campaign, the commercial featuring Sarah McLachlan and "Angel" contains all three appeals but relies on pathos to persuade the audience to support animals in distress and protect them further abuse. 

The commercial begins with a dog staring off with a sad look on its face, being held, as the lyrics "in the arms of an angel" from Sarah McLachlan's "Angel" play in the background, followed by more videos of abused animals staring at the camera ("Sarah McLachlan Animal Cruelty Video"). The intentions of these videos is to apply pathos and evoke one's sympathetic side; to make one feel sad and bad for the animals. This allows the audience to see and understand the traumatizing affects animal abuse has while also affecting the emotions to make people care more. Throughout the commercial, more clips of abused animals limping around and animals with swollen eyes and faces play ("Sarah McLachlan Animal Cruelty Video"). These clips also make the audience feel terrible and sympathetic towards the innocent creatures. Dogs and cats are loving, harmless creatures that have no reason to be mistreated. There is no reason for a dog to have to limp to get around or for a cat to only have one eye to see out of. This commercial is drawing attention to these features of the animals to make people see how terrible the effects of animal cruelty really are and to create change. 

Not only does the commercial use pathos with the imagery of the animals to grab the audience's attention, but it also features Sarah McLachlan and her song "Angel" to provide ethos in the commercial. Sarah McLachlan is a famous singer who is well known and provides credibility to the campaign by using her as a spokesperson. By bringing a celebrity into the commercial, and onto the campaign, the advertisement is able to capture the attention of those who know and respect Sarah McLachlan in order for them to listen to what she has to hear. As she speaks and tells the audience about the campaign, she uses pathos by questioning if the audience "will be [an] angel for a helpless animal," causing the audience to feel wrong and sorry for the issue ("Sarah McLachlan Animal Cruelty Video"). Many people know animal cruelty exists, but not many people are doing much to help. Sarah McLachlan speaks to persuade the audience to stand up against animal cruelty and help the innocent creatures. She is putting her reputation on the line and giving even more credibility to the campaign for allowing someone so well known to be associated with the issue. She is able to bring forth ethos with her reliability, and pathos with they way she speaks. 

The commercial also uses logos to provide facts and evidence of the effects of abuse on animals and how it is an issue that needs to be dealt with. At the beginning of the commercial, the quote "every single hour in BC, an animal is violently abused" appears on the screen, followed by the quotes, "three thousand animals were rescued last year" and "for hundreds of others, help came too late" ("Sarah McLachlan Animal Cruelty Video"). These quotes allow the audience to see from a factual point how relevant animal cruelty is and that it is not simply a myth or small problem. People who are not as sentimental and relate more to the evidence of an issue are able to support and better understand how devastating this problem really is. Not only do the facts prove to be logical and convincing, but the actual images of the animal abuse bring forth logos in the commercial as well to show physical proof of the abuse. Animal cruelty is an issue that everyone must recognize and help out with, and BC SPCA is able to bring forth this recognition using the three appeals. 

The point of this commercial is not just to make one feel bad for how animals are treated and the conditions they are left in. The commercial and BC SPCA want to influence and persuade people to actually do something about the matter. At the end of the commercial information is given on how one can help support the cause and steps to be taken when animal cruelty is experienced at first hand. This allows the audience to gain knowledge and be able to identify the issue. The issue is effectively presented throughout the commercial and is able to persuade the audience to be on the BC SPCA's side in this matter.  

While the BC SPCA commercial may be grueling to endure, it uses all three appeals to bring forth awareness to the End Animal Cruelty campaign and educate all audiences on the effects of animal cruelty. While logos and ethos are correctly used to persuade the audience, the real persuader is pathos and the use of visuals and audio throughout the commercial. The commercial works so well that it is able to relate to all types of audiences over many different medium and create a buzz for the issue. The company's intentions with each BC SPCA commercial is to create awareness and attention to animal cruelty, not just tear out one's heart strings with the tragic videos and images. While many television commercials are easy to forget, BC SPCA commercials truly stick around and people will always feel heartbroken when they hear the words "in the arms of an angel" or see Sarah McLachlan sitting with the dog, spreading awareness of animal cruelty. 

