Rhetoric on the Town: Bed Bugs and Emphasis

The intended audience for this image is people who have or have had problems with bed bugs, as well as the rest of us who are terrified of having a bed bug problem. The purpose is to instill fear of bed bugs in order to get people to use Orkin’s services. The initial effect is through the (very) emphasized message “bed bugs suck,” with “suck” made of bed bugs for extra emphasis and to make people uncomfortable by thinking about a bunch of bed bugs crawling all over the place in formation. The second most emphasized part of the image is the rather more comforting message “we can help,” which plays on the audience’s fear by offering salvation. All of this draws attention down the image to the box of text, which isn’t emphasized much at all but still stands out and continues creating fear. The red Orkin logo, while small, stands out from the blue on the rest of the image, drawing attention to it.

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