First off—I apologize to those of my audience who may be offended by the small quantity of crude language in my chosen video. I do not make a habit of swearing, myself, but the video itself was so well done that I chose to ignore the language. The video I’ve chosen is Penn and Teller’s pro-vaccination commercial: Penn and Teller on Vaccinations.
As the mother of an autistic child (the special needs I mentioned in my introductory discussion post), I am routinely subjected to criticism, often vehement, when certain people find out that we are a fully vaccinating family. I got so tired of defending my family’s decisions over and over again (the science-based approach was often met with hostility and suspicion) that I eventually sought third-party resources to heave at people when I lost patience with their vitriol. This video was—and remains—one of those resources. It’s pithy, slightly shocking, and proves its point in an overly dramatic way that ends up emphasizing evidence. I pulled it up and watched it through, keeping Conger’s four principles in mind (Conger, 1999).
- Establish credibility. At first glance, there seems to be no semblance of credibility. Penn Jilette and Raymond Teller are not physicians or scientists, nor are they professional researchers; they are magicians, entertainers, and actors (The Gale Group, Inc., n.d.). Logically speaking, and from the first part of Conger’s principle, they shouldn’t have any credibility at all in this context because they have no expertise in the field. The second part of establishing credibility, however, is what works for Penn and Teller: relationships. Penn and Teller are highly visible people in industries that rely not only on strong, interpersonal connections within those industries, but also require a healthy relationship and rapport with their external audience. They have been around a very long while (the duo started performing together in the 1970s), and employ myriad avenues of reaching their audience, including film and television, books, music, and video games. In addition, they are active and outspoken politically (James Randi Educational Foundation. 2013), so it’s not inconceivable that their popularity (i.e., the many relationships they’ve built with their audience) is what, in this video, takes the place of expertise and lends them credibility.
- Frame for common ground. This was addressed rather sneakily in the video. Neither Penn nor Teller framed themselves as parents, nor as physicians (wisely, I thought). Instead, they used sports metaphors, both verbal and visual—they used multicolored bowling pins to represent a population of children, and cast the bowling balls as various diseases. And this is where it gets sneaky: the sheer act of violently knocking the pins over repeatedly created the common ground—again metaphorically, but all the more powerful for that—of lost children.
- Provide evidence. Now, this is where the video truly shone. Penn and Teller very cannily kept overt emotion and idealistic arguments out of things; instead, they highlighted the evidence (the statistics). The video is overwhelmingly about the comparative numbers, and the duo provide the statistics not only verbally, but also in an engaging and shocking visual (knocking over the pins violently, the vaccination “shield”). In short, and in Conger’s language, Penn and Teller supplemented the numerical data with metaphors and visual storytelling along with compelling, colorful, powerful—and forceful—language.
- Connect emotionally. Penn and Teller jumpstarted the emotional connection when framing for common ground: most of us who are parents, I imagine, has spent a lot of time in bowling alleys—I know I certainly have. Who among us hasn’t felt the triumph and sense of brutish accomplishment when those pins go flying? Also, who among us haven’t at one point or another imagined all sorts of terrible things happening to our children, and visualized their helpless, prone bodies? Penn and Teller leveraged these emotional visuals in an understated but metaphorically powerful way, subverting the context of a fun family game (thereby invoking feelings of family) and allowing their audience, perhaps, to envision their children superimposed on the fallen pins. The first few times I saw this video, I shuddered.
This video is an anomaly in many ways, and I do remember thinking it was odd that Penn and Teller did such a fine job of persuasion when I first came across the video. I put it down to the dramatics and to the duo’s visibility and popularity. Now, however, after having examined it using Conger’s principles, I can see that it was much, much more.
References:
Conger, J. A. (1999). The Necessary Art of Persuasion. Health Forum Journal, 42(1), 17. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.snhu.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edb&AN=2214584&site=eds-live&scope=site
James Randi Educational Foundation. (2013, May 10). “38 Years of Magic and B.S.: A Conversation with Penn & Teller” – TAM 2012 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99_upx8URLI
The Gale Group, Inc. (n.d.). Teller. In Encyclopedia.com | Free Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/theater-biographies/teller