Scotland Votes on its Independence
This image was a public appeal to the Scottish people, asking them to vote “Yes” in the Scottish independence referendum on September 18, 2014. It is interesting to look back at this ad because we already know the final results of the vote. 55% of Scottish voters chose to vote “No” because they wanted Scotland to stay as part of the United Kingdom. However, this image shows how passionate many Scots were about Scotland becoming its own independent nation.
You can tell that the makers of this image used many different rhetoric devices when creating the picture. For example, they used logos because they were trying to say that people should choose their own government and they used pathos because they were appealing to the nationalism of Scottish voters. They wanted voters to be proud of their Scottish heritage enough to vote for independence and freedom. The audience for this image was obviously Scottish voters and the exigence is the need for the Scottish people to rule themselves.
The picture itself was also designed to push an agenda. The picture shows the distance between Scotland and London and it also shows the size disparity between the two. These are both meant to convince the viewer that Scotland should be independent and that it should not be ruled by a small area that is so far away. There is also an emphasis on the words, “YOUR COUNTRY YOUR CHOICE.” This is meant to make Scottish voters feel like it is their responsibility to vote and also it pushes the idea that it’s the Scottish people’s country and they should choose its government.
There is also an emphasis on the red sentence that says, “It’s that simple.” This makes it seem like the decision is obvious and it makes it seem like anyone who votes “No” is stupid. The thing about this picture is that it tries to overly simplify the whole issue of Scottish independence. It does not really discuss the pros and cons of either side. Instead, it basically just says to vote “Yes” and you are stupid if you do not. I guess images such as this one did not work as well as they were supposed to, considering that more Scottish voters chose “No” then “Yes.” The vote was pretty close, though, so maybe ads like this one did convince some people to vote “Yes.”
Featured Image Source: http://dprogram.net/2014/09/20/city-london-vs-scottish-independence/
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