Patrick Hall

10/13/14
Professor Kaye

These days, the unobservant might say that slavery in the United States, if
not around the entire world, is in decline, or abolished altogether. All evidence
seems to point towards that conclusion, as slavery is a concept largely discussed in
history class, or read about it textbooks. The irony of this situation is that slavery in
the form easily recognized by society may have been abolished with the
emancipation proclamation, but a different, arguably more disgusting form of
slavery still exists today in the human trafficking and sex slave industry. An illicit
practice that exists throughout the world, including that beacon of righteousness,
the United States, the human trafficking industry is a topic that people
understandably do not like to think about or discuss. This childish ignore it and
hope it will go away mentality is exactly what led Amnesty International to publish
their graphic ad entitled Cattle Market. When the average citizen stops to let their
mind wander, the sex industry is unlikely where it will end up, if it even gets a road
sign on their minds highway. Amnesty International seeks to end the invisibility of
this issue, and through the use of vivid imagery, powerful analogy and concise
presentation of information, the ad is made impactful to the viewer and
accomplishes its persuasive purpose.
Originally aired by the Walker Corporation of the United Kingdom in 2008, the
advertisers were presented with the challenge of making a concise, effective,
moving advertisement in competition for attention with all the other loud, eye
catching commercials on TV these days. This would be an ad aired into homes

across the nation, so obviously it could not be eye catching due purely to
graphicness either. So, left without many of their standard tricks, advertisers had to
get creative, and this gives rise to the shocking, segmented feeling ad that was
ultimately aired.
Firstly, the ad is highly visually dependent, and without explicitly showing
anything too graphic demands the viewers full attention by connecting with them
emotionally. The camera lens flies open onto the besmudged face of a confused and
scared looking girl. She is forcefully shoved forward by an intimidating looking man,
and stumbles forward, in a trance like state of disbelief. Soon she sees a horde of
other young, frightened looking women being shoved down an adjacent hallway,
and soon she is also swept up in the crowd, being herded towards some unknown
central location by another pair of men. After being ushered past farm animal stalls,
she comes into the central chamber, where she sees an auctioneer and various
bidders holding up numbers. Each time the auctioneers hammer falls, a woman is
dragged screaming out of the room, and our introductory character begins to cry as
the gravity of the situation overwhelms her. The imagery of so many helpless
weeping women is a compelling emotional appeal, as it preys directly on some of
our most basic, instinctual emotions. Next, the ad moves into its second phase,
where it recaptures the minds of the audience by suddenly removing all sound from
the footage except the occasional, fateful strike of the auctioneers hammer. If
people had not been watching yet, they would at least look up now to see why their
television had suddenly stopped making noise, and be shaken into a grim reality by
the drama they saw unfolding on their screen. The lack of sound forces the viewer
to process only visual information, and they are shown truly horrifying images in this
segment, of our first female character being inspected by the sellers like one might

inspect a piece of meat at a market. The hammer falls once more, and she is
dragged from the room as the ad transitions into its third and final segment.
The girl now stands framed in an unknown window, with a bed behind her
draped in red sheets to signify that it is a brothel. She gazes longingly out the
window at the passerby, connecting her dire plight to each and every person
watching. As the pedestrians are only ever seen indirectly, the ad forces us to
wonder who they are, and why dont they help the girl. This forces us to relate on a
personal level with the ad, revealing that the passerby could be any one of us, and
she may be living in slavery within our own towns and cities, maybe even in our
neighborhood! Again, the ad uses shocking visual components to strengthen its
effectiveness by appealing to us emotionally through the emotions of the woman,
and finally also logically, by placing her in an ambiguous location that could be near
to any one of us. It forces the viewer to question the morality of their own
community, wondering how could something like this be allowed to exist so
publicly? Amnesty International and the Walker group chose to compete for
attention on one of the most demanding forms of media out there, and succeeded
in portraying their message to the viewer through their powerful emotional, ethical
and logical appeals through visual and audio stimulation.
Second, the entire ad serves as one large and appalling analogous situation,
as evidenced even by its title, Cattle Market. When one thinks of a cattle market,
it conjures up images of noisy, dirty, loud places, where great herds of animals are
appraised by auctioneers and sold to the highest bidder for any purposes they
intend on using it for. Immediately the ad appeals to the ethos of the viewer, forcing
them to question why is this ad called Cattle Market but is supposed to be about
the sex industry? The answer is quickly revealed, as the viewer learns that in this

perverted world, women are nothing more than swine themselves, and the course of
their lives is easily and emotionlessly sealed by a few men acting as cattle drivers
with whips and prods. In the aforementioned second stage of the commercial, a
woman is grabbed and her face stretched out and turned side to side like one might
inspect a hogs teeth for the bidders to decide how much to offer to own her life. Few
things could be more impactful than a direct reduction of women to the position of a
prize to be won, and makes you pity them, while also condemning the vileness of
their enslavers. Since slavery in its most publicly recognized form no longer exists,
Amnesty International had to relate to the viewer that human trafficking is just as
disgusting and prominent as any form of slavery every was, which they do with the
simple statement in the last five seconds of the ad Slavery needs to be abolished
Again. As with any good persuasive text, the ad cannot be purely negative, and
must give the viewer some hope for change, which this ad accomplishes once with
its final word, again. In its entirety, this sentence forces the viewer to equate sex
slavery with the more prominently acknowledged and despised forms of slavery of
the past, rendering any argument against its gravity or relevance invalid.
Lastly, the ad also recognizes the importance of delivering the most
important and memorable information in a timely manner. There is a saying in the
professional world that goes a little bit like no one has ever complained of a
presentation being too short. Although the format of presentation is not exactly the
same in a commercial as presenting a project to your boss and coworkers, the same
philosophy still applies. Everyone has had that feeling when a commercial seems to
go on and on, even though most only last between thirty and forty-five seconds.
This has to do both with the effective presentation of the material and the specific
material being presented, a format that Amnesty International nails in both regards.

The ad actually is a bit long compared to many other commercials, with a run time
of about a minute, but maintains the viewers attention by breaking up the
information into the three distinct presentation techniques. From shouts of pain and
despair, to the shocking silence revealing the grave situation the women are in, and
finally to the plain black and white text with its short impactful statements, the ad
fully retains the attention of its viewers throughout the entire presentation of
content. The company also recognizes that the average viewer will retain only some
of the information from the commercial it saves its informational statements
500,000 girls are sold into the sex industry every year and, slavery needs to be
abolished again until the end of the ad, along with the final image of the
enslaved girl gazing forlornly out the window, wondering what her life might have
been like. Amnesty International understands effective presentation techniques, as
well the mentality of its audience, and is focused on the message they want to
deliver, which is all bundled into the creation of a persuasive, compelling
advertisement.
A typical persuasive ad has a statement it wants to make, an intended
audience, a time and place to be released, a problem to be addressed, and
constraints that may inhibit effective delivery of their message. The human
trafficking ad entitled Cattle Market released by Amnesty International
understands how to create a persuasive text, and addresses all of the above stated
requirements. It sets out to inform the general public of the severity of the sex slave
industry, despite the fact that people generally think slavery does not really exist
anymore. It understands that in the modern world, it is hard to get peoples
attention, so it leads people into being willing to listen through various attention
grabbing techniques used in their ad. It also has a clear purpose and message in

trying to bring attention to a serious issue that can exist anywhere, which it
achieves through its use of striking visual and audible imagery, as well as the
potent analogy of women in the industry to cattle at market. Ultimately, through
these two techniques, the ad appeals compellingly to the emotions, morals, and
rational thinking of its viewers, who will feel disgusted with the state of humanity
after watching this ad. The lasting impact of an advertisement is arguably the
largest factor of its persuasiveness, clearly proving Cattle Market to be a
persuasive, cogent advertisement well suited to raise awareness about a black
market business plaguing humanity from the shadows still today.