D'Ari+Butler+Visual+Analysis

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=Life After Text =  In 2009, Pulitzer Prize recipient Mike Luckovich published a political cartoon titled “Texting while Driving” in the Atlanta Journal Constitution to shed light on the new death toll of distracted teenage drivers by means of texting. This new era of drivers ; who are between the ages of 15-19, account for over 1.6 million crashes with over half of them resulting in fatalities (Council). This new trend of texting has become synonymous with driving this era of drivers and is creating a false impression to our teen drivers that the recipient of the text message is indeed the true recipient who they intend it to be, however what if the true recipient of that “How far away are you from the mall?” or the “ OMW, see you in 5” message was actually death? Would you still be prone to reply to the text while driving? The Texting while driving graphic evoke this mentality with its subtle use of only black and white colors, the personification and subliminal use of death, and its use of situational irony. The visual takes places with two square boxes side by side where you have a sarcastic driver ( who looks like he is going to rear end a car) sending a text to death. Color selection, perception, personification, situational irony, and the subject of the visual are a few of the techniques used in this piece of work to appeal to its audiences’ pathos and the persuasiveness of the message.

 Texting while driving uses a wide variety of visual attributes to convey its message. Perhaps the most “stand-out” attribute would be his use of only black and white colors. The color theory helps us understand how and why these two opposites colors can change the dynamics of any piece of work that uses them. These two divergent colors complement each other in a way that appeals to your subconscious level before you are even consciously aware of it. The use of just these two colors together also provide what each color represents individually. (Psychology) Black is used to convey a sense of edginess, strong, overwhelming, and even the unknown (ie: The situational irony of not knowing who you really are sending the text message to), whereas white is used to convey innocence (ie: sending a “harmless” text letting your mom know your running late), light, godliness, and purity. The color scheme also enhances the font choice which appears to be a Comic Sans Ms style. This gives the font an extra dramatic edge while also standing out as well as sets the serious tone. Combining the two incorporates both meanings into one multifaceted work of art.

 The Personification of Death is an intricate part in what makes this graphic stand out. Making Death into a “real” person with “real” human characteristics, appeals more because you can relate to death, or in this case, death can relate to you. The Outline of the graphic is a rectangle with two side by side windows. On The left, you have what appears to be a young man making a mockery of the actual act of texting while driving, and on the immediate right, you have The Grim reaper replying back with “LOL ( a popular social media acronym commonly known as laughing out loud).”Making death into an actual person, a recipient if you will, was genius. It makes you step away from the concept of “Death being all around you” to a narrower one that Death could be a text away. Giving Death a cell phone and showing that he is “hip with current trends” by using the short hand acronym for laughing out loud also makes you feel that is more of a friend than you think.

 The climax of the visual implies that death of the driver was the result of texting. Although there was no political cartoon created that depicted the actual death of the driver, the technique of subliminal messaging (specifically with a subliminal stimulus) and situational irony conveyed this message. Situational irony is evident when the driver sends a text message to what I assume was intended for anyone in the world but death himself. Looking at it from a personal perspective, I sure would not text while driving if I knew I was texting death and not my mom. The subliminal stimulus piggybacks off the situational irony by making the audience subconsciously aware of the impact the visual is having on a psychodynamic level. In the visual, death appears briefly standing still with his sickle pressed up against his right shoulder while holding his cell phone in his left hand replying to the driver. This suggest to me that death was on break or that he had just came from meeting another victim.

 Political cartoons are one of the many ways aimed at persuading not only teen drivers but all drivers from doing things that are just out right deadly without all the alarming statistics that may not register with the audience preventing them from receiving the persuasiveness of the message that the publisher intended. Telecommunications Industry AT&T have launched a campaign called “It can wait” have emerged encouraging drivers to take a pledge against texting while driving, and while it has over 14 million pledges for the cause, it does not include people who may not know about the cause or the people that have just been persuaded by the political cartoon itself (AT&T). The need for having more than one avenue to get a message across is important because there may be other audience members that are not receptive to the message that the “It can wait” campaign is conveying, hence while a political cartoon is an alternative method of persuasion. For example, although efforts have been made to stope texting while driving, 40% of teen drivers say they have been in the car where the driver used their phone in a way that it put them in danger (Child). We must continue to be advocates and promote new concepts like the one this political cartoon subliminally did with the idea that we all could be texting death if we are texting while driving.

 Link to Picture:

 https://www.bikerumor.com/2009/07/27/texting-while-driving-study-proves-increasedrisk/

= Works Cited = AT&T, 2017. //IT Can Wait//. 28 01 2017. <@https://www.itcanwait.com/>.

Child, Guard. //Distracted Driver Statistics//. 01 02 2017. <@https://www.guardchild.com/distracted-driving-statistics/>.

Council, National Safety. //National Safety Council Estimates That At Least 1.6 Million Crashes Are Caused Each Year by Drivers Using Cell Phones and Texting//. 12 01 2010. <@http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/national-safety-council-estimates-that-at-least-16-million-crashes-are-caused-each-year-by-drivers-using-cell-phones-and-texting-81252807.html>.

Psychology. //Psychology of Black and White and What They Mean//. 29 01 2017. <@https://www.fatrabbitcreative.com/blog/psychology-of-black-and-white-and-what-they-mean-for-your-business>.

= = = 1. @http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/national-safety-council-estimates-that-at-least-16-million-crashes-are-caused-each-year-by-drivers-using-cell-phones-and-texting-81252807.html =

2. @https://www.guardchild.com/distracted-driving-statistics/

3. @https://www.fatrabbitcreative.com/blog/psychology-of-black-and-white-and-what-they-mean-for-your-business

4. @https://www.itcanwait.com