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Michael Jonathan
Mr. James Springall
IB English Language and Literature SL 1
27 August 2014
Pelicans | How and why are animals used in the advertisement below?

Very rarely are animals equated with human beings in advertisements, but the above
advertisement by Harvey Nichols, a luxury goods store based in London, shows a highly
effective and compelling use of pelicans and a fish to draw customers to its June sale. The
use of animals in the advertisement above mainly serves to attract the attention of passing
customers. This is done through a thoughtful use of persuasive techniques that are evident in
the use of animals.
To begin, the large flock of pelicans crowding around the single, red fish is a perfect
example of the use of transfer and bandwagoning. Because so many hungry-looking
pelicans are waiting to battle it out for the fish, passers-by will immediately associate with
the hunger shown through pathos, and become hungry for the fisha transfer of the
feeling of hunger has taken place. Once hooked, passers-by will notice that the fish is actually
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a symbol for Harvey Nichols products that will be on sale. Putting two-and-two together,
passers-by will immediately want to come to the sale, because passers-by also notice that the
pelicans are symbols for other passers-by that will compete with them for the seemingly few
Harvey Nichols product on salethe passers-by have thus jumped on the bandwagon.
Clustering is also effectively used here. The image of the pelicans waiting in a large
circle around the red fishalong with the bandwagoning, transfer, and symbolism
involvedworks with the use of the word Starts in the textual portion of the advertisement
to create the feeling of waiting for a race to begin; a race to be the first and only one to
have a Harvey Nichols producta solid use of avant garde. Hence, through persuasive
techniques, the animals are used to attract customers to Harvey Nichols June sale.