Critical Interpretation of Fundraising Message

Paper Summary:

This paper dissects and analyzes from a critical perspective, the marketing techniques inherent in a fundraising letter to save pigs from inhuman treatment. The paper first analyzes the wording as an attempt to lure the reader in to the cause being espoused in the message. The paper then addresses and examines the personalized wording of the letter, which is used to separate the letter from other junk mail in the mind of the reader. The paper then inspects how the wording of the letter can also be interpreted as guilt tripping the reader into making a donation through plying on the humane-ness of the cause. This paper also describes other marketing tools in the message such as implying urgency and calling for action.

From the Paper:

"The dual notion of something fragile, do not bend, and the personalized address are aspects of marketing that are the first elements of the attempts at persuasion of not only the content, but the form of the communication regarding fundraising for this particular cause.
"The letter is personalized, implying impels a certain informality that would separate the letter from the junk mail perception that usually accompanies clearly visible form letters, and discourages readers from opening the letter to review the contents therein."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Burke, K. (1966c). A dramatistic view of the origins of language and postscripts on the negative. In KI Burke (Ed.), Language as symbolic action: Essays on life, literature, and method (pp. 419-479). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
• Burke, K. (1968b). Dramatism. In D. L. Sills (Ed.), The international encyclopedia of the social sciences (pp. 445-452).
• Burke, K. (1985). Dramatism and logology. Communication Quarterly, 33 (2), 89-93. Chesebro, J. W. (1988). Epistemology and ontology as dialectical modes in the writings of Kenneth Burke.
• Communications Study 199B: "Symbolic Convergence Theory." 2007-11-14
• Cragan, John and Shields, Donald. "Applied Communication Research: a Dramatistic Approach." Prospect Heights, Ill. : Waveland Press 1980.

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