The poster below from TurnAround, an organization devoted to helping victims of domestic violence, is “intended to strike a chord with abusers as well as their victims.” The dramatic combination of words and image builds on an analogy between a child and a target and makes strong emotional and ethical appeals.

The bull’s-eye that draws your attention to the center of the poster is probably the first thing you notice when you look at the image. Then you may observe that the “target” is, in fact, a child’s body; it also has arms, legs, and a head with wide, staring eyes. The heading at the upper left, “A child is not a target,” reinforces the bull’s-eye/child connection.

This poster’s stark image and headline appeal to viewers’ emotions, offering the uncomfortable reminder that children are often the victims of domestic violence. The design causes viewers to see a target first and only afterward recognize that the target is actually a child—an unsettling experience. But the poster also offers ethical appeals (“TurnAround can help”) to show that the organization is credible and that it supports the worthwhile goal of ending “the cycle of domestic violence” by offering counseling and other support services. Finally, it uses the logical appeal of a statistic to support this ethical appeal, noting that TurnAround has served “more than 10,000 women, children and men each year” and giving specific information about where to get help.