Jaws

WWF’s message is simple but powerful: no matter how terrifying a shark is, the lack of such a valuable and majestic species is far more frightening. The picture itself is as clear as it can be. The only images are of the ocean and a shark fin and only three simple and widely understood words are displayed. This simplicity, this clarity, is the base of WWF’s affective argument and message. It doesn’t take a list of complicated statistics or a Sarah McLachlan song to get their message across. By refraining from these over the top rhetorical techniques WWF has portrayed an argument that both simplifies and clarifies the problem. The image totally overthrows and questions such a common false conception about sharks and their ferocity. Movies and television shows have been antagonizing sharks for years, making them out to be ruthless and therefore are not as valuable but WWF fights that very conception. Their ad proves that sharks’ lives are just as important as the cute and cuddly polar bear’s by implying that the seemingly terrifying shark’s existence isn’t nearly as frightening or worrying as its lack. It alludes to a larger societal problem of endangered species, specifically the hunting of sharks for their meat and skin across the world, in only three words and one picture.