The American Red Cross - Strength in Numbers

Jordan Anderson

Brooksie Kluge

ENG 104

28 Sept. 2015

Strength in Numbers

There are over 70,000 disasters each year in the United States. The American Red Cross responds to nearly all of them. Not only do they cater to peoples needs that have been affected by disasters in America, they also support hundreds of thousands of military families, millions of blood donations, processing and distributions of blood, health safety services, and international support to countries in need. The Red Cross depends on donation’s and caring people to keep their organization alive. They also rely on money from the public, volunteers, and peoples valuable time.  Clara Barton is the founder of the American Red Cross on May 27th of 1881. The idea was born when Barton heard of a Swiss-inspired Red Cross network while visiting Europe during the Civil War. When Barton returned home she campaigned for what is now known as the American Red Cross. She led the organization for twenty-three years before she decided to retire. During that time, the group directed their first overseas disaster relief efforts. The American Red Cross uses different types of appeals such as ethos to convince people they have a strong business model and to show that they are trustworthy, but they also use pathos, particularly sad images, to make potential donors emotional.

The American Red Cross uses ethos to show their donors that they have a reliable and helpful business operation. The number of blood donations collected in the U.S. a year is 15.7 million. (“Blood Facts and Statistics”) They show that they are a credible business by using statistics. They have had approximately four million people donate blood each year in the United States. (“What We Do”) Blood donations are one of their biggest volunteer donation operations today. The Red Cross tracks and keeps all of the records to show their donors that what they do is reliable and beneficial to a person needing blood. Ethos is an effective way to get people to believe in their organization and they do a great job of using this type of appeal.

Their second best statistical operation is their disaster relief. California is a big contributor to the foundation, especially during the dry hot summers in California. Wildfires have been a major problem for the state during the last decade. Not only do they respond to wild fires, but they also tend to home fires. The Red Cross sends help to the victims of those affected in these types of fires. Workers and volunteers are sent to the fires and set up a shelter. They cater to the victims needs such as housing, water, and food. In a commercial that the American Red cross produced they used the appeal ethos by saying “The American Red Cross helps a family every nine minutes after a wildfire has taken over their home.” (“Before the Fire”). Also in the YouTube video “Last Year’s Disaster” they said that they responded to 52,000 home fires across America last year. By the Red Cross saying this, they convince donators that they use their donations efficiently to help families and people in need. Statistics play a big part in the American Red Cross’s advertisements to attract donations from people, but ethos is not their biggest appeal.

Pathos is the American Red Cross’s biggest attention getter by far. They love to use their sad images from disaster relief efforts, children and adults that need blood transfusions, or for people that just need help in a desperate situation. They do this to get the greatest emotional affect out of people. For example, when an individual see’s a child that is malnourished, or has a severe disease, something triggers in that persons’ brain and they not only feel the need to contribute to the organization, but to help make a change in someone’s life. Pathos is the backbone of the American Red Cross because it rakes in more donations than any other type of appeal. If they did not use this approach to attract interest to new donors their productivity would drop severely. Showing images not only uses pathos, it also uses ethos once again to show that the American Red Cross is the real deal.