For my media analysis blog I decided to look at an ad that focused on the deforestation that we are seeing all over our earth. The advertisement I choose is from the World Wildlife Fund who works in endangered species conservation. In the advertisement, it depicts a forest in the shape of lungs. Lungs are a vital part of the human body and this show the forest as also having lungs. The two lungs are green and lush and are connected to show veins going throughout the set. What first catches your eye in the ad is the dead section in the right lung. The section is cleared and bare, stripped of its natural resources. The only text in this ad is at the bottom, “before it’s too late”. Their goal with this ad is to show that the earth is a living organism and that our ecosystems are connected as is with a human body. Us as humans breathe with our lungs and this ad is trying to represent in a familiar way what we are doing to our forests. The point of view represented in this ad is that we need to act before it’s too late to help our forests. The space cleared by what seems to be deforestation is almost half of the right lung. If it were to continue it would move throughout the lung and the forest would continue to die. The value I see represented in this ad is environment over economy. Deforestation is only for human economic gain. When we cut down forests it is for its resources and development not for environmental reasons. This ad is showing that when we destroy our resources it is destroying our Earth and you can’t have a booming economy under those circumstances because the actions of today will effect future generations.

I believe advertisements like this one are very powerful. People can read articles about environmental issues such as deforestation, air pollution, and plastic waste in our oceans but seeing it in an image hits in a different way. The saying of “a picture is worth a thousand words” holds true even when it is an ad such as this one. By giving the forest lungs they are humanizing it and making it more relatable. It brings an instant reaction and shows how effective environmental ads can be. People act when they feel powerful emotions towards a certain issue. This combined with the added amount of information and advocacy is making these ads more and more effective in our current society. These environmental advertisements I believe are vital in making the general public aware of just what is happening to our Earth and that humans are a large part of the negative effects. While some environmental ads seem to be dramatic, they are needed and many represent the reality already seen in certain parts of the Earth. If we wait to act till we are seeing major effects in first world countries, it will be too late and we will already be over the threshold.