Pamela Anderson and the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge
We all know what the ALS ICE Bucket Challenge is and we all know who Pamela Anderson is. What you may not know is that Pamela Anderson strongly disagrees with the way the ALS Association uses the money raised by the Ice Bucket Challenge. She recently took to Facebook to voice her displeasure with the ALS Association, challenging them to stop animal testing. She then gave graphic examples of how mice and monkeys were being tested on in experiments funded by the ALS Association.
In her Facebook post, Anderson’s target audience was anyone who participated in the Ice Bucket Challenge and the public in general. Because of the viral nature of the Ice Bucket Challenge, Pamela chose the perfect kairos to raise awareness for animal rights. Since it is something that a great many people participated in, reading Anderson’s message about animal testing is very relevant.
Much of Anderson’s argument against the ALS Association uses pathos. No one can deny that the idea of mice and monkeys being infected with a crippling disease and subsequently dying horrible deaths is something that easily evokes an emotion of sadness. Pamela knows this and uses it to her advantage and makes sure that even if you are a supporter of animal testing, you will not feel very good about it.
Anderson also uses logos when she incorporates a FDA statistic stating that 92 out of 100 drugs that succeed in animal trials fail when used on humans. This statistic makes us question what the use in animal testing really is.
Finally there is ethos. Anderson’s criticism of the ALS Association has been criticized by many for her lack of sources. While she claimed to know exactly the funds from the ALS Association have been used, she offers no source of where she obtained this information. However, it cannot be denied that Anderson has a long history of supporting animal rights, so she may know what she is talking about.
You decide.
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2014/08/23/pam-anderson-criticizes-als-ice-bucket-challenge/
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This is a very interesting article. Pamela Anderson is not someone I would think of off the top of my head as being an animal rights activist so the way you explain the different ways her argument is effective helped me out a lot. I think she could have informed herself better or chosen a better mode for her cause but she is being resourceful and using what’s popular for something she thinks is important. You used many terms from the reading very well.
I like what Pamela Anderson did here to promote her fight against animal testing. Instead of jumping on the ice bucket challenge bandwagon, she did the opposite of what was expected and used the element of surprise to get the attention of her audience. Obviously, Pam Anderson is very famous and has a large fan-base, so by simply uploading a short video, she grabbed the attention of millions and informed them of this problem. Similar to what Pam did, Charlie Sheen used the element of surprise to promote his idea. Instead of ice water, he poured 10,000$ cash on his head and said he was going to donate it to the ALS foundation. He brought up a good point and said, why pour water on your head for awareness when you can donate directly to the organization you’re promoting?
Charlie Sheen Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qat9gR5nrpM.