Water is an organization whose main focus is to build wells in parts of Africa, Asia, and South America where clean water is unavailable. The water that children and adults alike have to drink is often contaminated with many different types of bacteria. Many people in the developing areas of sub-Saharan Africa, Indonesia, and South America are forced to walk very long distances to get water for their families and for themselves. The charitys website informs people of the risks that are associated with drinking contaminated water. Some of this water has tragically caused the death of many people who are forced to drink it by causing diseases such as E. Coli, Cholera, Hepatitis, and others. The great majority of the deaths caused by drinking contaminated water are in children under five years old. Also, the time that it takes for some to walk and get the water is time that could be used to get an education or to work to provide for other needs that said people might have. This crisis is the main purpose behind this organization. Since the income of donations is based entirely on voluntary donations, the promoters use a variety of methods of advertisement to try to persuade people to donate. However, I would like to analyze the rhetorical situation of one photo advertisement in particular that has two photos and a fact for the caption. One of the photos features three men drawing water from a murky, stagnant pond. The other photo is of a woman smiling while drinking clear, clean looking water. .
I can be confident when I say that the audience of this advertisement is any person that is not afflicted by the same circumstances as the people the charity is helping, because the charity would gladly accept donations from anyone. This advertisement could potentially appeal to many people in a few different ways. One way this could cause someone to be moved to donate would be that the person was moved by empathy to donate.
