"No More" Domestic Violence
Imagine standing in a room with 12 women and 12 men. Four of those women and three of those men have experienced violence in a relationship before (National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Society). It seems like domestic violence and rape is on the news more and more recently. With celebrities being caught beating up their girlfriends or drugging un-expecting fans, a lot of controversy has arisen. The release of the National Football League’s 2015 Superbowl commercial addressing domestic violence bettered their public image by utilizing rhetorical devices to deliver a specific message and impact the viewers.
THE PLOT
This commercial is very minimalistic. There are few colors, no background noise, and only a few slow passing images. The commercial begins by showing a series of images of a calm house. At first glance, the pictures seem almost normal, but then it becomes apparent that the house was in complete chaos just moments ago. The commercial is completely silent except for the sound of a phone call between a 911 operator and a woman who appears to be trying to order a pizza. The operator gets annoyed with the woman because she hasn’t answered any of his questions, but then he realizes the reason she hasn’t done so is because someone is in the room with her and he may be dangerous. The viewers can immediately see the woman is afraid of the possibility of being attacked by her significant other. She quickly hangs up the phone just moments later and the ad comes to a close with a request to help stop domestic abuse.
"No more... she seems fine to me."
AUDIENCE
Initially watching this commercial, one would assume the targeted audience is the general adult population. However, given background information, one might change their mind. The time this commercial was aired and the current news stories change the audience. This commercial was aired during the 2015 Superbowl and was a part of the newly started National Football League campaign called “No More”. The No More campaign calls for an end of all domestic violence and sexual assault.
Ray Rice and his wife Janay arrive for a hearing.
In current events at that time, famous football player Ray Rice had just gotten in trouble for domestic violence. For whatever the reason, the National Football League did not properly discipline Rice and the public was enraged at their decision. Fans erupted with anger and began labeling the NFL as a domestic abuse supporter by allowing its players to “get away” with domestic abuse accusations. To get rid of these labels and their bad reputation, they came up with the “No More” campaign for which this commercial was created and then aired in the middle of the Superbowl. When these facts are considered, the audience is no longer the general public, but more specifically, football fans who disapproved of the NFL’s actions.
"No more... he was drunk."
Instead of approaching their commercial from the factual side, the creators approached it from the emotional side. The writers had to appeal to pathos because the topic is serious and because the purpose was to gain people’s respect. The other two rhetorical appeals, ethos and logos, were not really used in this commercial. However, one could also make the argument that logos was used since the call in the commercial was a real recorded 911 call. Although this is not data, it is still something that happened and might therefore be considered factual.
PATHOS AND LOGOS
SOUND
The logo used for the No More campaign.
Everyday commercials typically accompany the words with some kind of background noise, whether it is music or birds chirping. This commercial plays nothing other than the phone call. This gives the commercial a very raw, realistic and serious feeling, which is what domestic violence is. The creators of this commercial also made a very specific choice when they decided not to use any actors. Their choice not to show any faces suggests that domestic abuse can happen to anyone and no one would know.
PERSUASIVE
DEVICES
At the end of the commercial, one persuasive device was used. At the end, the audience was called on to “help end domestic violence and sexual assault” (No More Project). The use of pathos through the commercial combined with the directness of being asked to join the fight creates a strong persuasion because it almost makes the viewer feel guilty if they don’t do anything. This could also be a minor version of the bandwagon effect because using the word “help” implies that many other people are doing it and here is an opportunity to join the movement. The word “help” also has a sense of hopelessness behind it so people may be affected by the graveness behind the word as well.
" No more... I'll say something next time."
The majority of images shown in the commercial are of normal, everyday things. However, each image is distorted in some way. Bang’s Principles can be applied to many of these distorted images. Bang’s First Principle, for example, says smooth horizontal shapes signify stability and calm and the very first image shown is of a smooth horizontal shelf to show the stillness of the house (Bang 228). The Third Principle states “diagonal lines are dynamic because they imply motion or tension” is also relevant here because the rug and bed pillows are arranged to show diagonal lines and make the viewers feel like the objects were recently moved (Bang 230). The concept of Bang’s Fifth Principle about the center of attention of a picture being the very middle was used for the shot of the punched hole in the wall. The following principle, the Sixth one, mentions how light backgrounds make viewers feel safe whereas dark backgrounds symbolize fear, the unknown, and danger (Bang 236). The black background of the text at the end of the commercial gives the text a more frightening and serious tone.
IMAGERY
CONCLUSION
As a result of this commercial, over 12,000 people have taken the online pledge to say “no more” to domestic violence and sexual assault (No More Project). The combination of those stats and the proper use of rhetoric are what makes this commercial successful in conveying the desired message. The National Football League was able to show people that they do actually care about domestic violence and sexual assault issues. The release of this commercial even got many people talking about domestic violence, the commercial, and the NFL both behind closed doors and on the news. Perhaps with more campaigns similar to this one, these issues would be brought to light and people would learn how to detect and report these types of dangerous situations.
"No more... excuses."
Author's Note: This piece was especially fun for me to digitalize. Since domestic abuse is such an intense and serious topic, I had to be sure the page was not very "happy" or too overcrowded. I chose dark wood panels for the background because the wood panels look similar to the walls or floor of a house and the dark color makes it seem almost scary. I did not want the entire page to be too dark, however, because that would be boring. So instead I found three more colors that were neutral enough not to be distracting, but different enough not to be boring. The gray color for the essay text was derived from the gray parts of the wood background, the nude/khaki color is from the colors in the video, and the blue is from the color used in the campaign logo. I used the blue quotes as page dividers because I felt that they were very impactful and I wanted them to stand out.
Completing this project helped me learn a lot throughout the process. While writing it, I learned how to "read between the lines" of everything I see and to not just accept things for how they are. After analyzing the video bit by bit, I find myself questioning everything in an image or video. During the digital composition phase, I learned how to draw the reader's attention as well as how to properly sectionalize a written piece. However, for me, the most important thing I learned was how to connect what you see to previous knowledge and new found research. Without the knowledge of the NFL scandal, this commercial would've just been another campaign, but research gave it a reason for existing and also changed the way I looked at the campaign overall.