Time Out for Margaret (The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, 1948) as posted at Mashon, Mike. 2014. When Polio Was Defeated by a Vaccine . . . and a Seven-Year-Old Girl. Library of Congress Blogs. https://blogs.loc.gov/now-see-hear/2014/10/when-polio-was-defeated-by-a-vaccine-and-a-seven-year-old-girl/
This fundraising appeal provides a unique window into the culture of mid-century America and the fears facing those generations. As vaccines have come under increased scrutiny in recent years due to misinformation and pseudoscience, the rise of previously eradicated diseases is a looming possibility. Allowing students to return through the lens of this appeal video to the time before a polio vaccine was available is an invaluable experience to help them understand what life was like when polio was rampant and presented a terrifying risk to parents and their children.
In this 1948 campaign appeal video for funding for polio research, child star Margaret O’Brien relies heavily on pathos to ask the “director” of the “film” she is working on to stop filming so that she can go visit a sick friend who is battling polio. Although the appeal is not fully preserved, the messaging is clear: polio can affect anyone and has horrible consequences, including paralysis and death. No one is safe from polio, no matter how wealthy they are. As a fundraising campaign for polio research, this campaign appeal video is effective in its logos, pathos, and ethos delivery.
Time Out for Margaret is a 1948 appeal shown in movie theaters starring child star Margaret O’Brien. These appeals were common approaches for concentrated fundraising campaigns and organizations—most notably, The March of Dimes—to fund research on polio and vaccines.
- How does this appeal use logos, pathos, and ethos to communicate its message?
- How is the use of a child star effective in this fundraising appeal?
- How does this fundraising appeal transcend socioeconomic status?
- Would an appeal of this sort be as effective today?
NCTE Standards and Michigan Merit Curriculum: Visual Arts
NCTE.6: Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and non-print texts.
- Students can analyze the logos, pathos, and ethos of the video to determine the techniques used to appeal to the audience (and their pocketbooks).
ART.VA.III.HS.2: Describe how organizational principles are used to elicit emotional responses.
- Students can analyze the logos, pathos, and ethos of the video to determine the techniques used elicit an emotional response from the audience.
As an alternative to the PSA (public service announcement), teaching students to analyze and then create an appeal is an effective way to focus on the logos, pathos, and ethos (or literary techniques) to deliver a message and elicit the desired response from the audience.
In a science or social studies class, students can view the appeal as an introduction to a study of infectious disease or the history of vaccination and its alternatives in the United States.
There is an anti-vaccination movement in the United States (and globally). Some families may be skeptical of vaccines or believe in alternate treatments or exposure therapy. In addition, some religious beliefs prohibit vaccination.
Many families have family members who have been adversely affected by polio and the imagery and discussion of paralyzed children could be triggering and insensitive to the traumas of living with the disease.
- A 15-minute news special discussing the new Salk polio vaccine’s release: A special report on polio | Library of Congress
- A written pamphlet from the Charity Hospital in New Orleans and the creation of the “Kenny Unit” to treat patients with polio: Charity Hospital
- Other appeals from the time period not related to polio or vaccines: [Advertisements shown in Baltimore theater to Black audience] | Library of Congress
- The World Health Organization fact sheet on polio: Poliomyelitis
- A guide to emotional appeals in advertising: Emotional Ads Work Best - Neuromarketing
- A guide covering Aristotle’s rules on rhetoric, emotional appeals, and persuasion: Aristotle's Rhetoric