Spare Parts
Spare Parts In the United States, drinking and driving is a major concern in today’s society as about thirty-two percent of total traffic deaths involve alcohol (Hanson). To prevent people from driving under the influence, many slogans and advertisements are used mainly to encourage driving carefully. One advertisement made by the car manufacturer BMW is found in Public Interest Magazine and promotes safe driving with the message “Don’t Drink and Drive. ” The visual in this advertisement is a bare right leg of a man and next to where it should be the left leg of the man is a prosthetic leg and foot.
On the right side of the visual image the advertisement reads: “Spare parts for humans are not as original as those for cars. ” At the bottom of the page it states, “Don’t Drink and Drive” along with the BMW logo. This BMW advertisement is an effective and reasonable way to prevent people from drinking and driving because it shows the negative consequences of getting into an accident, such as losing a leg, and it promotes safe driving. In order to prevent people from drinking and driving, the car company BMW uses this advertisement to promote awareness of the dangers and negative outcomes.
Many consequences can occur when the driver is not able to realize what is going on, drifts off the road, and gets into an accident. This BMW advertisement only shows one possible injury of an accident where the man in the visual has lost his leg and it was replaced by an artificial one. To promote the message “Don’t Drink and Drive,” this advertisement shows that it is extremely dangerous and can cause injury, amputation, and/or death. Some severe types of injuries can potentially cause people to lose their leg, other body parts or even a life as a result of a car accident.
It affects the viewers who see this advertisement because they do not want to turn the picture into reality now giving them the choice on whether to do the right thing and drive safely or not. From seeing this advertisement, it develops the primary appeal of pathos because it displays the emotion that one gets from seeing a person with one real leg and one prosthetic leg. After seeing this photo it makes the viewer think about the consequences of being under the influence and driving at the same time.
Having an artificial leg will greatly disable a person where they become unable to do the things that they were able to do before the car accident. This holds true whether it was the person driving themselves or someone else driving, especially an innocent driver in another car. This advertisement proves that it is possible to replace car parts, but there is nothing one can do to replace body parts or even someone’s life. They will have to suffer the negative results of making the bad decision to drive drunk.
Through showing a possible consequence, this advertisement is effective because people can relate to this problem if they have been injured or know someone who has been injured or has died from a drunk driving accident. It would make people make sure not to drink and drive because it would make the picture turn into reality and no one would want that. There is a possibility this can happen so it makes the advertisement extremely believable affecting anyone who was to come upon it. Another appeal is to logos through the quote that is displayed in the advertisement.
It states, “Spare parts for humans are not as original as those for cars. ” This statement is used to prevent the issue of drinking and driving as it means that human body parts are not as appealing as those that can be changed in cars, especially since parts of a human are impossible to re-manufacture. If there are spare parts on a car, it is hard to tell that there is a difference between the original and replacement parts. But when a human’s body parts are replaced by something else like an artificial or prosthetic part, it is possible to tell the difference because it does not look like the original body part.
It is important to know this because while driving, people are not only responsible for their own safety but of other peoples’ safety as well. They may cause someone other than themselves to become injured or hurt just because they made the bad decision to drive while intoxicated. This advertisement promotes safe driving through its simple and clean layout using a white background and simple black font. This technique is used to make consumers think the product being sold (which in this case is a car) is simple and clean as well which means that the car will be reliable and also safe.
Even though BMW is selling their company and their car, they also show their awareness of drinking and driving. With this white background, it makes the image stand out on its own requiring viewers to focus primarily on the picture. After seeing the prosthetic leg, it will grab and keep peoples’ attention to get them to wonder what the advertisement is all about. Therefore they become encouraged to read the words to further understand what BMW is promoting because they believe it is necessary for people to be aware.
By doing this, the advertisement focuses on the importance of the issue over what BMW is actually selling. This advertisement does not show the product purposely to show how much BMW cares about preventing drinking and driving. They are trying to persuade people to buy their cars since they are aware of the consequences of drinking and driving. BMW uses this advertisement to show that they are trying to prevent the issue of driving under the influence to gain the trust of the consumers. If the company is considered trustworthy, they will create a good reputation for their cars so that people will buy them.
They want to show that their car is safe and reliable as well. When buying a car, consumers’ number one concern is usually the need to feel safe. This is a way for them to gain customers appeal and hopefully they will buy BMW cars. Even though this car company wants to be able to sell to the general public, an especially meaningful message is intended for people who drive. This can be seen through the image, which is a human and it will affect people who see the advertisement because they will not want to end up with a prosthetic leg or any other body part.
By promoting safety and proving that there are negative consequences of drinking and driving, BMW uses an advertisement to help people make the right decision when getting behind the wheel. They require people to take action so that they can prevent alcohol related car accidents from occurring because they are so fatal. People become aware that it is extremely dangerous to drink and drive through this advertisement because they know they would never want to have a prosthetic leg. BMW created an effective advertisement requiring people to stop and think about the reality of drinking and driving and to hopefully make a good decision.
