The famous saying that a picture is worth a thousand words perfectly describes the profound advertisement made by World Vision, a humanitarian aid organization. This advertisement depicts a young white girl clothed in purple pajamas with blue polka dots, possibly around eight-years-old, reading a book in her perfectly arranged vibrant pink room. The floor is carpeted with a white rug, and there’s a pair of slippers as well as toys scattered in the room. The girl is sitting in her twin bed with an elegant white leather bed frame wrapped in a cozy pink blanket. The pink silk trim on the blanket runs feet back to a dark, uninsulated cement room with a young Indian girl, around the same age, sewing the trim. She is wearing a blue dress resembling a hospital gown with a long-sleeve patterned shirt underneath. The girl is at a table with a sewing machine with only one lamp towering over her providing her light to work. She is sitting on a cardboard box with fabrics on top in order for her to be able to reach the table. There is also another cardboard box covered with fabrics behind her. It the corner of this advertisement it says in all capital letters, “not every child gets a childhood.” This organization purposefully used a white girl to be the one in the room that bright and bubbly. The colors used to decorate the room greatly impact the image, pink is a comforting, warm color, and white is a pure innocent color. The combination of these two colors brightens the image, emphasizing the luxury and difference to the back of it. The back of the image, where the young girl is sewing, only has monotoned dark colors besides the pink tying the two separate situations together. The Indian girl is depicted in the background, symbolizing that she is not in anybody’s forethought. The fabrics are neutral colored, but appear to be dirty. The only light shining is a fluorescent desk lamp, the darkness of the room makes this advertisement even more powerful. The difference between the light of the two areas serves to create emotion from those who look at it. It shows the dark reality of how our products are made, at the hands of a child. The pink trim connecting the two girls, I believe, is meant to represent the connection between them. Regardless of race, different social and economic status, they are just two little girls. This organization is trying to bring light to the reality of what is going on in order for mass production to occur. Sadly in some countries, children are seen as adults and forced to go to work. They never have time to be a child, all due to the economic status they were born into. This organization wanted to show side by side, the reality behind how products are made to get an emotional response from their audience. In a society where capitalism runs the economy, products in stores are key to keeping the country going. Without realizing it, the country is run on the labor of children. It is not slavery, because they are getting paid. But it is pennies on the dollar. Nonetheless, it is no excuse for the children sacrificing their childhood for money.
E110 FA19 Class Blog 