"Imagine This Is Yours"

This image cleverly depicts the inhumanness of hunting animals for game or pleasure. The use of a young, innocent face of a baby in lieu of a head of a moose or reindeer draws empathy from the viewers for the stuffed, dead animal. The dark, blurred, fur-like background behind the baby draws attention to its face, the main focal point of the advertisement. The antlers coming out of the child’s head create a link between the innocence of the hunted, dead animal and the child.  In addition, the juxtaposition of the innocent face and the bottom half of a rifle creates a violent image of using a rifle to hunt animals, particularly young animals. The contrast between the powerful, dangerous rifle and the helpless, innocent baby alludes to the powerlessness of the hunted animal in the face of the rifle. Moreover, the positioning of the rifle, which is seemingly placed on top of a fireplace in a family room, connects the viewer to the action of the rifle. Since fireplaces and family rooms are found in most households, the placement of the rifle entails feelings among viewers of participation in the rifle's actions. These feelings of participation in the rifle’s actions spark feelings of outrage among the viewers, which result in a sense of duty to protect the baby and hence the represented animals. The words, “imagine this is yours”, elucidate the atrociousness of the act of hanging a dead, hunted animal as a prize on a family room wall. The statement draws on the parental instincts of protectiveness and safety, which instill a sense of urgency around stopping this act of hunting for pleasure. By comparing the image of an innocent baby with a stuffed reindeer or moose, the WWF’s advertisement draws on the viewers’ empathy and parental instincts to illuminate the heartless shooting and stuffing of innocent animals.