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Justin Nanez
Vyvial
10/18/16
Engl 1401
A Global Cry for Help
This day in age the earth is all too often taken for granted, as opposed to being
appreciated for the vast and beautiful landscape that it truly is. Environmental awareness is on
the rise, and not without sound reasoning. According to USA.gov, Pesticides, including
insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, are used to control living organisms that damage crops; this
is but a simple example of how we, with the use of everyday objects we dont think about
(Pollution Issues). Two commercials that, while are very different, cover two quite similar
messages with surprisingly closely related over all goals for their respective audiences. The
message behind the Environmental Defense Funds ad Earth is effectively given to its audience
through the use of song, unity, and metaphor. On the other hand, the Crying Indian commercial
delivers an environmental warning not unlike the first, however the latter ad is executed using a
more apparent approach with imagery, and an appeal to sympathy. These ads work in an effort to
get across an incredibly broad, but vital message to an immensely broader target.
Firstly, Earth, from the Environmental Defense Fund, begins to broadcast its campaign
with a cheerful and humbling tune, What a Wonderful World, creating its sense of humanity and
togetherness right away. There is a beautiful overhead shot of the earth, as if from a space craft,
giving the viewer a sense of home and unity. Several more visuals appear and pass the screen
such as a young boy on the beach, a family of farmers, and even a group of children flying kites.

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It is important to take note the array of age and race, because this is in place to remind the
audience that we, as people, are wonderfully and hugely diverse, yet are still capable of working
and living together while sharing the planet. To add to the melting pot of earths inhabitants, the
last image shown while the song is playing is a photo of a family of giraffes, to once more show
us that this earth is massive and needs everyone to take part in it preservation. The ad comes to
an unsettlingly abrupt halt when the photograph of earth that was being featured is crumpled into
a ball, and littered on the ground. This is when the intent of the commercial becomes
increasingly clearer, as words appear on the screen reading If youre not recycling youre
throwing it all away (Earth). This hits the nail on the head, bringing home the idea that
recycling needs much more emphasis in todays society. This advertisement is effective in
showcasing that helping the earth is very black-and-white in the sense that if you arent helping,
youre hurting. This ideal is brought to the intended audience of all people on earth through the
use of togetherness and metaphor.
Secondly, The Crying Indian is an ad put together by the Keep America Beautiful
campaign that takes on the very same issue in a completely different way. The video opens with
what can be assumed to be a native American paddling his canoe in the water. The audience does
not know it this point, but the rhetoric starts at this point. Music plays as he makes his way
across the water. The music sets a tone that is ominous and unsettling. Behind the man, we can
see monstrous factories that billow enormous clouds of thick smog. This is to symbolize the
modern industrialization and call attention to the problems it causes. In fact, Air pollution is by
far the most harmful form of pollution in our environment, according to UCCEE
(Environmental Pollution and its Effects). He then passes bits and pieces of thrown out
newspaper and discarded plastic in the water. As he approaches the shore, more and more heaps

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of trash are visible, and garbage is scattered everywhere. He leaves his boat once he reaches land
and continues on foot, visibly disgusted and sickened at the poor state of the environment. Then
a narrator is heard over the music speaking on behalf of the man Some people have a deep,
abiding respect for the natural beauty that was once this country (Crying Indian). A native
American man is used here for two reasons, the first being that the audience is intended to feel
sympathy for the man whose people once treated the land properly and modestly, having to see
what it has become, which is just the opposite. Secondly, the audience is then to feel guilty for
being a part of the problem, contributing in todays pollution and pile up of excess trash. To top
of the entire scene a driver of a passing car throws unfinished food out of the vehicle and to the
Native Americans feet, as he looks into the camera and sheds a tear. The narrator finishes the
earlier statement with and some people dont. People started pollution, people can end it. At
this point in the ad the somewhat inferred message is put directly in front of the viewer, leaving
nothing to be assumed.
While these two commercials had very different uses of rhetorical devices and methods
of persuasion, both were produced for a very similar purpose. These pieces had been made to
bring alert to people of all backgrounds that the environment is much too often taken for granted
and demands care and nurturing just like any person. The Environmental Defense Funds
campaign for a cleaner environment titled Earth is effective in its message that claims If
youre not recycling, youre throwing it all away meaning that a very distinct line has been
drawn between helping and hurting the planet. This is effectively brought to the viewers
attention by the use of a sensation of unity and strong visual metaphor. Also successful was The
Crying Indian, of the Keep America Beautiful movement. This commercial was used a far more
blunt approach with intense imagery and a strong appeal to pathos and the audiences empathy

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and sympathy. Both ads were largely convincing and effective while using far different tactics
from one another, using strong rhetorical devices in their own respects.

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Works Cited
"Pollution Issues." Pollution | USAGov. USA, n.d. https://www.usa.gov/pollution. 05 Dec. 2016.

UCCEE. "Environmental Pollution and Its Effects." Environmental Pollution and Its Effects.
UNEP, n.d. http://www.uccee.org/Environmental_Pollution.html. 05 Dec. 2016.

Coffeekid99. "The Crying Indian - Full Commercial - Keep America Beautiful." YouTube.
YouTube, 30 Apr. 2007. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7OHG7tHrNM. 05 Dec. 2016.

Http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiu966Nt2ucSkYzTGBQWzBg. ""Earth" Environmental

Defense Fund Ad Council 1990 PSA." YouTube. YouTube, 01 Feb. 2015.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q43scioRNiU. 05 Dec. 2016.