Rhetoric Class assignment about Visual Analysis about Ad. (College level, 1400-1600 word)

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Joe Smith

Dr. Kristin N. Riley

RHET 1302

Date

Promises: Reflections on a Post-Sandy Hook PSA

On December 14, 2012, a 20-year-old man named Adam Lanza shot his mother at home,

and went on to kill 27 other people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

The unimaginably horrific loss of life that day in Connecticut shocked the United States and the

world, igniting fierce debates over firearms legislation as well as mental health and wellness.

Sandy Hook Promise, a nonprofit organization comprising in large part by people whose

immediate families were marred forever by the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, was

founded soon after the massacre, striving to transform a tragedy into a learning moment and a

turning point for mental health and gun reform. Reaching over ten million people on YouTube,

Sandy Hook Promise released a PSA in December 2016 surrounding the fictional “Evan,” a high

school boy whose story so engrosses the viewer that one does not notice the suspicious behavior

of a tertiary character who ostensibly ends up massacring Evan and his classmates. Through a

direct Toulmin-Aristotelian hybrid argument style, Sandy Hook Promise’s “Evan” video appeals

via logos, ethos, and pathos to the concerns of every American parent during a time fraught with

gun violence, and effectively represents the nonprofit organization’s goal to identify, intervene

and help high-risk young people so as to reduce school shooting incidents.

Classic rhetorical devices applied to Sandy Hook Promise’s “Evan” PSA drive home a

message about the tragedy of violence from a personal and human scale, the retroactive logic of

recognizing warning signs in high-risk children, and an invitation to explore the organization’s

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ethos on their website. Throughout the video, the viewer is reminded of the delightfully awkward

but precious sanctity of high school crushes and relationships. The idealized image of high

school romance between Evan and Emily in the video appeals strongly to concerned parents,

who want their children’s high school relationships to be as wholesome and as respectful of

agency and personhood as possible, and emphasizes more broadly the innocence and purity of

childhood and adolescence. Evan begins his relationship with Emily on a table: after scrawling “I

AM BORED” mindlessly into the wood, he later notices a reply, and develops plans to

rendezvous. There is a notable lack of racey or explicit messages in the quick discussions written

on the table, which, when contrasted with many parents’ concerns about their children’s new

challenges in navigating relationships, enhances pathos appeal and amplifies the presentation of

an idealized childhood innocence. In their mission statement, Sandy Hook Promise pledges to

eliminate gun violence at schools so “no other parent experiences the senseless, horrific loss of

their child,” which reframes but enhances the pathos appeal to parents whose natural instincts

drive them to protect and worry about their children.

The chronology of the “Evan” PSA also establishes a retroactive logos to appeal to the

viewer. Throughout the video, a tertiary figure (the shooter) to Evan and Emily is subjected to

bullying, haughtily rebuffs an invitation to talk from a fellow classmate, reads a book about guns,

watches a YouTube video of someone firing a shotgun at a range, posts a threatening photo on

Instagram that shows him pointing a gun at the camera with the caption “see you at school,” and

points a finger-gun at a teacher as they walk by. All of these events, however, happen literally

and figuratively outside the focus of the video. The playful and carefree nature of Evan’s

growing relationship with an anonymous pen pal absorbs the viewer, and the soon-to-be shooter

is slightly out of focus and not in the center of the screen other than for a brief moment when

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Evan is scrolling through Instagram. These moments are all revisited later in the video after the

shooter cocks his gun as Evan and Emily converse at end-of-year celebrations, and the shooter’s

profile is brightened somewhat to direct the viewer’s attention to his actions. While the original

scenes that include the shooter’s suspicious behavior cannot qualify as “foreshadowing” due to

the concerted effort of Sandy Hook Promise’s filmographers to obscure and distract from the

actions, there is a retroactive logos implicit in repeating scenes. Namely, warning signs are self-

evidently easy to avoid, and that even the viewer of a video about school shootings and gun

violence would not pick up on these signs without retracting their steps. The meaning behind this

retroactive logos is complemented by Sandy Hook Promise’s “Know the Signs Guide,” which

lists in clear terms warning signs exhibited by the shooter in the “Evan” PSA: “a strong

fascination or obsession with firearms,” “exhibiting excessive over-reaction or aggressive

behavior for a seemingly minor reason,” recently bullied or picked on, and making overt threats

of violence on social media. This logos is a powerful tool in elevating the video’s argument to a

place of personal responsibility as the viewer understands how easy it is to miss clear warning

signs, and suggests to the viewer that they are empowered to stop potential tragedies such as

Sandy Hook from happening again if vigilance is maintained.

The “Evan” video invites the viewer to view Sandy Hook Promise’s website, which

establishes ethos by describing the number of people the organization has reached. According to

the website, more than 2.5 million parents, educators, community leaders and students have

trained with the Sandy Hook Promise program since its founding. Moreover, the video

emphasizes not direct ethos but an ethos that is easily discoverable if one is to inform oneself by

visiting the website. The focus on a seekable ethos ties in generally with Sandy Hook Promise’s

goals of the eventual autonomy of their trainees. The argument is, more broadly, that while

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Sandy Hook Promise can inform citizens who want to prevent school gun violence how to take

proactive measures, it is ultimately up to the citizens themselves to carry out these lessons and

measures in the real world to save lives. As stated in Sandy Hook Promise’s mission statement,

an end goal is “educating and empowering parents, schools and communities on mental health &

wellness programs that identify, intervene and help at-risk individuals,” which does not imply

total oversight from the organization itself, as that would be unreasonable.

While the denouement of the video itself is shocking, the “Evan” PSA is not

confrontational along ideological lines, but employs an Toulmin-Aristotelian hybrid argument

style to attempt to establish a consensus. With respect to the aforementioned pathos, the overall

message of the video focuses on the sanctity of human life rather than on fractious, purely

political issues. At the end of the video, white text reads on a black background “gun violence is

preventable if you know the signs,” a statement totally devoid of ideology. This message

effectively resonates with the views expressed on Sandy Hook Promise’s website. However,

there is some discordance between the video and the website in terms of how the message is

delivered. While not politically confrontational, the imagery and content of the video is

emotionally confrontational. It represents the terror of senseless of gun violence in schools and

the jarring imagery is designed to shake the viewer into action and preventive measures. The

website is gentler in approach, and utilizes Toulmin argumentation to back up dry, statistical

claims. A mission statement on the website includes “uniting people of all beliefs and

backgrounds,” suggesting that the organization does not seek reform based on ideology but

instead on consensus and “common sense” gun reform. With special respect to language like

“common sense,” the creators of Sandy Hook Promise’s “Evan” video and the website seem to

comprehend the divisive nature of debates over guns, and try to move the focus away from issues

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of constitutionality and towards solidarity in the face of a gun violence epidemic. The content of

the video plays heavily on juxtaposition, an element intrinsic to Aristotelian-style argument and

one which enhances it in the video. Soft acoustic guitar music plays as Evan and Emily begin to

plan to meet each other, and evokes the innocence of high school romance. These elements clash

heavily with the brutal reality of gun violence when the shooter opens the gym door and cocks

the gun, ready to fire. This visually reinforces the inhuman nature of gun violence, and

furthermore abstractly references the arresting forces on humanity and empathy of mental illness

and isolation. The inhuman imagery at play in the final scene before the review of warning signs

provides more groundwork for a non-ideological coalition effort to stop gun violence, as such a

scene in real life would negatively affect an entirely dogmatic gun rights voter at a similar

gravity to an anti-second amendment voter.

Unfortunately, even since Sandy Hook Promise’s “Evan” video was released, school

shootings still remain an ugly part of American life. In February 2018, a gunman of a similar age

to Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza killed a similar number of people at Marjory Stoneman

Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The need for proactive reform and outreach, without

regard for background or ideology, is desperately wanting even in 2018. According to Sandy

Hook Promise’s website, every day in the United States, 219 people are injured by gun violence,

and 34 of those 219 are under the age of 18. Videos such as “Evan” help bridge the divide of

political belief to promote common sense regulations as well as increased awareness of mental

health and anti-bullying efforts. Utilizing a hybrid of Toulmin and Aristotelian argumentation,

Sandy Hook Promise’s PSA reached over ten million people, many of them parents, and

appealed to their concern through logos, ethos, and pathos. More importantly, the “Evan” video

held steadfast to Sandy Hook Promise’s goals and initiatives of identifying, intervening, and

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helping at-risk kids and young adults. Insofar as the PSA is concerned, the contents and message

are more applicable than ever.