Using Research Effectively

One problem associated with awareness campaigns is the manipulation of the visual content to force an emotional reaction. It is as if the image was programmed to make the viewers feel a certain way while orienting their perception of the content. It was not until watching Angry Inuk by Alethea Arnaquq-Baril that I realized how this strategy worked. An article by CBC reported that since 1960, animal activists have been trying to shut down the sealskin trade, a tradition that has become a way of life for the Inuit. The activists’ campaigns definitely had an impact as the reputation of seal hunting was ruined. But who can resist to a fluffy baby seal’s pitiful eyes? Almost no one. And the worst part is that those fluffy baby seals depicted on the campaigns’ posters are actually never hunt by Inuit, it is illegal since 1987. After the ban of products targeting only one type of sealskin, the Inuit’s economy fell and their communities’ suicide rates escaladed becoming the highest in the world! I am still shocked to see that all of this happened with a cute animal’s picture. Alethea Arnaqua-Baril, the creator of the documentary Angry Inuk, said that “When you totally erase Inuit from the picture, it can appear as a black and white issue.” I agree with her point, and I think that the anti-sealing campaigns are a great example to show the impact that a simple image can have, especially when it comes to the general public’s opinion.