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Zachary Estrada

CAS 137H

Lori Bedell

23 September 2017

WWF Advertising: A Rhetorical Analysis

In 2012 Hurricane Sandy shocked the East coast by hitting New York City hard, even

flooding Ground Zero. This was just six years after Al Gore made the controversial prediction

that the downtown New York City, including the site of the 9/11 memorial, would flood as a

result of rising sea levels and storm surge in his 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth.

Although his prediction of these effects of climate change may not seem to be soundest, Gore

also referenced a more notable and measurable effect of climate change; the melting of the North

Polar ice cap by 40 percent its original size. This along with many other natural phenomena

caused a variety of different groups to avidly fight for reform in climate change policy around

the world. One of the most credible and active of these groups is the World Wildlife Fund or the

WWF. In 2009 the Climate Change policy conversation around the globe was at its peak, the

United Nations held their Climate Change Conference or the Copenhagen Summit with

attendance from governments of nations all around the world. In the months prior to this

conference the WWF came out with an “Emergency” ad campaign and a “9/11” advertisement in

order to influence society to take notice of climate change effects and to urge them to take action.

Although both the “Emergency” and “9/11” WWF ads invoke strong intrinsic proofs in

conjunction with stylistic elements, the “Emergency” ad stresses the urgency of preventing
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climate change from accelerating whereas the “9/11” ad calls society’s attention not climate

change to be as serious, if not more serious, of a threat as terrorism.

The WWF manipulates the power of intrinsic proofs accompanied by particular imagery

to establish logical reasoning to support their claim about climate change in their “Emergency”

ad. There are many logical reasons behind why acting quickly in an emergency is a vital part of

our society, some of which include: preventing further damage from occurring, protecting the

surroundings, and saving the lives of those involved. Evoking the power of logos, the ad suggests

that since it is already a social norm to react quickly during emergency it would seem ridiculous

to act slowly or not at all. Furthermore, the WWF draws a connection between small scale

emergencies, in terms of the number of people it affects, and the much larger scale crisis that is

climate change. Despite the fact that the imagery in the ad helps the audience visualize this

notion, what makes the reasoning clear is the statement “You can’t afford to be slow in an

emergency. Act now for the planet” written in larger print to the right of WWF’s logo. This

quote serves to allude to the fact that society is no stranger to identifying urgent situations and

acting accordingly. Additionally, the second portion of the quote establishes the connection

between emergencies and climate change through its call to action. Therefore, the WWF advises

that climate change is the world’s emergency and instead of watching the destruction to the

planet from a distance as a society, action should be taken sooner rather than later.

Although the WWF’s “9/11” ad offers a strong contrast to their “Emergency” ad as it

compares the very serious threat of terrorism to climate change, their use of logos is still central

in the urging of the audience to consider the latter to be ever more serious than the former.

Utilizing a juxtaposition of imagery with the quote in the top right corner, the WWF provides

powerful cultural context in comparing a terrorist attack to a tsunami. By depicting countless

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planes headed for The World Trade Center, the image implies there being a larger death toll if

9/11 involved dozens of hijacked planes. It is not until the audience’s attention is directed

towards the quote “The planet is brutally powerful. Respect it. Preserve it” that they realize that

this image is actually supposed to represent the death toll of the 2004 Asian Tsunami. The quote

implicates the effects of climate change as being the cause of extreme natural disasters and, in

turn demands that the audience respect and preserve the planet to avoid future disasters.

Furthermore, this can be seen as an allusion to society’s comprehensive actions to prevent future

terrorist attacks due to the amount of lives that our lost. This being the case the WWF reasons

that it is only sensible to do the same for natural disasters, especially when the death tolls are

much greater. Thus, the WWF uses this juxtaposition to elevate the exigence of climate change

to the seriousness of terrorism and urge society to take the necessary actions in order prevent

further, more severe adverse effects of climate change such as natural disasters.

As the polar opposite to the WWF’s “9/11” ad, the “Emergency” ad creatively and subtly

implements an arsenal of visual elements in its structure that provocative commentary on the

current state of the world as well as humanity’s selective attention to its surroundings in order to

urge society to prevent the acceleration of climate change all while maintaining its effectiveness.

The viewer’s attention is initially drawn to the picturesque sunset that illuminates nearly the

entire image including the large, bright red coast guard boat on the left side of the image. That is,

until we notice what is going on in the darker right side of the ad which portrays a ship slowly

sinking along the outer edged of the sunset sending two flares into the sky that serve as its only

source of lighting. The particular use of lighting reveals the tendency of society to focus on what

is in the spotlight rather than the full image often right in front of them. What society chooses to

pay attention, or chooses to put in the spotlight, depends on things such as issues on the pollical
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agenda; events that occur in the world and how the media portrays such events. Often times, this

selective attention comes down to what society feels immediately affects them. This is precisely

why the WWF uses the particular choice of imagery of emergency personnel in order to make

their advertisement effective. Due perception that emergency personal act quickly when

responding to an emergency, there is a higher chance that the idea of first responders acting

lethargically would be inconceivable. This imagery utilizes a similar logic as the WWF targets

the audience’s emotions in order to provoke shock at the sight of an unusual image of first

responders neglecting to act. Nonetheless, the WWF uses the choice of the bright red coast guard

ship and the beautiful orangish-yellow sunset for an alternate purpose as well. The particular use

of both of these images is to show that although, for the most part, things in the world and in

nature may seem bright and beautiful, there is a dark and ugly truth about climate change that

society continues to ignore which is represented by the sinking ship off in the distance. If this

societal disregard for this truth’s presence continues, Earth’s fate may look much like that of the

ship as it will sink into darkness that society may be unable to climb out of.

The distinctively controversial “9/11” ad portrays a horrific scene created by the

particular manipulation of light and choice of imagery in order to convey their message about the

seriousness of the effects of climate change. Applying dull and muted colors, the somber and

dreary tone that the images of the actual events on September 11th conveyed. The WWF

establishes these tones through their use of an image of a New-York City prior to the events of

9/11 with all of the colors drowned out by the gloomy blue skies and dark blue waters that engulf

the photo. Although the colors themselves just establish the dreariness that is reminiscent of the

emotions attached with 9/11, when combined with the imagery of countless airplanes all headed

straight for the Twin Towers the image suddenly becomes horrifying. This depiction of the
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terrorist attacks on this day on a level completely in-conceivable to the audience is where the

advertisement and the WWF capture the attention of their audience, in the wrong way. Due to

this subject’s fragileness, especially only 8 years after the fact, the WWF’s faced the brunt force

of controversy that arose from their ad. Ultimately this choice of imagery used to provoke

emotion and grasp the attention of the audience distracted from the purpose of the WWF ad, to

illustrate the seriousness of climate change and its effects, as it instead surrounded the ad with

controversy and subjected the WWF to intense criticism.

Even though the WWF’s “Emergency” ad and their “9/11” ad differ in their purposes as

one calls the audience to act immediately in order to hinder the progress of climate change and

the other attempts to elevate the exigence of climate change to the seriousness of terrorism. Both

ads invoke intrinsic proofs and a variety of stylistic elements in order to support their respective

purposes. Although the “9/11” ad proved to be ineffective in focusing the audience’s attention on

climate change, both ads intend to influence society to take action to prevent what the WWF

recognizes as the world’s largest issue unfolding before our very eyes. In order to have any

chance at preserving the planet we must widen our perspectives beyond the spotlight and look at

the whole picture because the Earth’s flares are calling us to look in the darkness, look into the

truth of climate change. In fact the Earth has been calling society for years, but we invented

voicemail. The Earth kept calling, but then we put it on hold. Now is the time to answer these

calls; the time to act, because if we continue to ignore them they will continue to become louder

and louder. Until, the Earth is silent.

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Works Cited

Guggenheim, Davis, director. An Inconvenient Truth. Lawrence Bender Productions, 2006.

Sweeney, Mark. “WWF: 9/11 ad ‘should never have been made’.” The Guardian, Guardian

News and Media, 3 Sept. 2009, www.theguardian.com/media/2009/spe/03/wwf-911-tsunami-ad.

“WWF: Boat.” WWF Print Advert By Ogilvy: Boat | Ads of the World, Clios.com, 1 May 2009,

adsoftheworld.com/media/print/wwf_boat_0.