Evoking emotion to persuade an audience

Pathos are the way in which rhetors "appeal to human emotion" (Crowley, 246). It seems logical that members of the audience will be more easily persuaded if rhetors are able to evoke certain emotions within them. In my argumentative writing textbook, it is stated that "as emotional intensity wanes, so does the persuasiveness of arguments based on emotional appeals" (Crowley, 247). In other words, if the intensity of the emotion evoked in an argument is minimal and the argument is based on the emotional appeal, then the audience will not easily be persuaded.

As I read this in my textbook, I was thinking of an everyday example of pathos being used in the media and I immediately thought of a specific commercial on TV. This commercial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gspElv1yvc asks people to donate $18 a month to BCSPCA to help rescue animals who have been abused by giving them food, shelter, etc. I think this commercial is extremely persuasive and its argument that one should sponsor an animal at a monthly rate is based on emotional appeals and certainly appeals to the audiences' emotions. As my textbook mentions, "emotional appeals are based on the assumption that human beings share similar kinds of emotional responses to events" (Crowley, 250). It can be assumed that many people have pets, or rather that many people love animals and have such a strong connection with them that they can't imagine any animal that deserves to be abused. The commercial plays a very sad song in the background while simultaneously showing pictures and video clips of injured dogs and cats. I think that because of the emotion this commercial sparks inside of a viewer, it serves as very effective argument that these animals need help and persuades a large audience to donate "$18 a month, just 60 cents a day" to such a worthy cause.