The ideas surrounding consumerism and the roles we all play in its impacts is at the forefront of modern day social debate. As humans we are all consumers of a wide variety of products, goods, and experiences - some of those basic necessities, and others supplement our desires of aesthetic and efficiency. As technology has developed over the past century to make the relationship between supplier and consumer a highly efficient process, that development has come at a high environmental cost. The short film “Dream” by the Wildlife Conservation Film Festival narrates several examples of this environmental impact. When digesting rhetoric like this I wonder how we as humans hold ourselves accountable for such actions, and on what levels do we need to see real change happen? This prompts me to ask how is rhetoric - like the WCFF’s short film - working to bring awareness to the necessity of these actions, and how does this rhetoric work to establish the steps necessary to creating a solution?
Who is truly responsible for the environmental dilemma we currently find ourselves in? As Deidra W. Arrington acknowledges in her article “Ethical and Sustainable Luxury: The Paradox of Consumerism and Caring,” the oil and fashion industries are the top two contributors to mass environmental pollution.(Arrington) Consumerism as an ideological theory has undergone massive change in the 21st century as the idea of Corporate Social Responsibility has been brought into the light by both activist groups and demanding consumers. More and more companies, especially luxury brands, have taken large steps to establish themselves as part of an ethical platform. In a study conducted by members of the Marketing Departments at Yonsei University and the Georgia Institute of Technology, researchers found “that the effectiveness of a brand’s [corporate social responsibility] campaign depends on brand type and perceived power of consumers.”(Chang) Meaning that the consumer demand to interact with brands that hold themselves to higher ethical standards is being met by many companies everyday. These companies found success in taking the steps to create a stronger CSR (corporate social responsibility), because it made the consumer feel in a stronger place of power in the interaction. Rather than having to accept the harsh realities of a company in exchange for taking part in their services and goods, consumers now have a voice in how they hold themselves and others accountable to be more ethically and environmentally conscious.
What I find extremely important is that it is not only the voice of the consumer that impacts this kind of change. Arrington mentions how “investors in luxury companies are interested in how a brand approaches sustainability and social issues. PETA U.S. purchased share in Hermés and Prada to exert influence over the brand’s use of exotic animal skins.”(Arrington) Rhetoric being shared around this subject also continues to grow and have a larger impact on society. The short film “Dream” by the Wildlife Conservation Film Festival has over 1.6 million views on YouTube, and it is easy to assume that this video has been viewed by a variety of parties including daily consumers as well as large corporations.
When viewing the short film, there are a variety of symbols that consistently stick out because of the impact from the rhetoric. The first is the parallel structure in the narrative. The beginning of this piece includes several scenes of wildlife around the world living a happy and beautiful life. The warmth in the color scale of the scenes, and the animation of the animals’ expression aligns with the serenity of the music and hopeful construction of lyrics like “when hope was high and life worth living.” These same scenes are then seen again, but from an altered perspective. As the song shifts into a darker musical variation and moves into the lyric “but the tigers come at night, with their voices soft as thunder as they tear your hope apart”, the animation follows this theme as well. At this point in the film we see images of humans destroying the beauty of that original picture with boats crashing through ice sheets and poachers stalking extinct wildlife. Along with that change the overall color scheme moves into a cooler pallet, and the story shows scenes of despair and death. The sharp contrast in how these two narratives are portrayed communicates intensity of the impact on the environment. (WCFF)
The second is the rhetor’s use of scope to charge the audience to build upon the narrative from their own perspective. By creating scenes that only feature one or two animals, it puts the viewer in a position to extend the upon this subject and create a collection of similar scenarios. You see one or two animals put in the direct line of harm on the screen, but then you are forced to imagine it on a greater scale of the entire animal kingdom. The ratio of humans to animals in each of the scenes is also clearly establishes the innocences of the subject. A single baby seal against a large group of large men clearly establishes the animal as a defenseless and helpless victim. (WCFF)
The third is how the multimedia approach to this rhetoric is deeply impactful as an audience member, because it evokes a wide range of emotions and places a large deal of responsibility in the hands of the human race - which is animated with ominous glowing eyes and disturbing physical features in intense contrast to the innocent and warm nature of the personified wildlife. However, these aren’t humans living in everyday life - it specifically focuses on poachers hunting endangered animals, whalers in large fleets attacking and murdering sea life, hunters using terrifying tools to slay young arctic mammals for their fur, and massive oil rigs spilling oil into the oceanic habitats of a variety of wildlife. The mix of an intense narrative, emotionally charged music, and intricate animation work together to effectively communicate the message. (WCFF)
The rhetoric in this piece shines a light on the impact that the level of today’s consumer demands has on our environment. It works in a variety of ways to implicate a new sense of responsibility to consumers and brands. This specific piece is aimed largely at a consumer based audience, but cleverly highlights the corporate level as the broader issue. I believe this to be highly effective, especially after my research surrounding the power dynamics between consumer and brands in relationship to corporate social responsibility. In the article I referenced earlier in this blog post, Deidra Arrington also argues that, “The real issue is consumer demand; it is the elephant in the room. Consumers expect companies to behave ethically; however, a mere 23 per cent report a company’s ethics as influential in purchase ink decisions.” (Chang) As more rhetoric along this accord is created, the more we will see consumerist and market ideologies shift toward a stronger ethical approach.
The purpose of rhetoric is always to communicate ideas with an audience in order to involve more people in a larger discussion and persuade said audiences to align with the rhetor’s established set of ideas. Seeing the potential impact this single artifact could have says a lot about the development of rhetoric. The short film “Dream” and other forms of rhetoric like it can teach rhetorical scholars about the study of different types of media. I’ve noticed in my own research that often more study is placed on text-based artifacts, but as our world moves farther into a technological realm the more we see varying types of media being shared on a wide range of platforms. The rhetoric in this media is as impactful and important to the study of communication as text based rhetoric. Because of the influence of modern technology and social media, one of the most effective ways for a rhetor to communicate their message is on a digital platform.
Over the past decade communication has gone through a major transformation because of the prevalence of social media. Rhetoric based in multimedia has been a part of our lives since the mid 20th century in the form of film, television, and radio. However, the rise in social media presents a new platform of sharing rhetoric, and does so on entirely different scale and level of efficiency. Everyday we see rhetoric driven subject matter in videos, messages, and memes posted to a variety of public internet platforms. We see advertisements for a variety of brands, campaign resources for political candidates, and socially charged posts. The ability for a piece of communication, simple or complex, to be shared on the internet and become viral is a new phenomenon. The more we study and analyze these new and more intricate forms of rhetoric, the more we will learn about the technological evolution of communication.
In a recent study conducted by the Bharathiar University Department of Linguistics, research collected a plethora of text based data from social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp. It was concluded that “Telecommunication companies charged the users based on the number of letters used, and the number of characters per SMS was limited. So to cut the cost of usage the users had to find a way to develop the message with minimum letters.”(Dhanalakshmi) Not only do we see a mass shift in communication spreading into newer media’s and platforms, we also see a shift in how we use symbols to create language. This shift was also driven by the consumer market. As rates to access these new internet platforms rose, those wishing to communicate were forced to alter symbols and style to increase accessibility.
“Dream” is just a single example of the wide impact a piece of viral media can have, and on social media every piece of rhetoric has that potential. Witnessing the impact that this 3 minute film had on corporate and consumer responsibility to approach the free market with an ethical mindset shows us that any message can have a similar impact. This changes the concept of audience, because we no longer have to focus on delivering to a small scale specific audience when we have the ability to communicate a single idea with most of the world. This allows rhetors the platform to create more material than ever before, but that also comes with a new set of pressures - communicating the ideas in a way that’s widely understandable and highly efficient. The more we study this new form of rhetoric, the deeper we will understand how it is evolving alongside communication in a modern era.
Arrington, D. W.. “Ehtical and Sustainable Luxury: the Paradox of Consumerism and Caring.” Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019.
Chang, D. R., Jang, J., Lee, H., and Nam, M.. “The Effects of Power on Consumers’ Evaluation of a Luxury Brand’s Corporate Social Responsibility.” Psychology & Marketing, 17 Oct. 2018.
Dhanalakshmi, N. and Dr. Subramanian, V.M.. “New Communication Styles in Social Media.” Language in India,1 July 2017.
WCFF. “Dream,” YouTube, 13 Oct. 2016, m.youtube.com/watch?v=RjMzXykfbm8.
