RHETORIC

From the website, it is very clear that this is an advertising piece used to attract like-minded people into this space and participate in the festival. From initial speculation from browsing around the website and the rhetoric used in the language written, it is very explicit that they are proud of what they do, what they've done so far, and the impact they have created in the world. Which, from the annual reports, their Slow Food website, and the Terra Madre microsite where people go to find specific information about events happening. 

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Even though the language and tone used is very approachable, understandable, and respectful, in my opinion, the slightly overt "sales-y" tone is a little too much. As a civilization, we see about 4,000 to 10,000 ads per day, and the amount varies depending on how you live as a person i.e. if you commute to work, use the laptop/computer every day, or how much time you spend on mobile devices; but since we already see so many advertisements, we tend to get desensitized to this level of bombardment. From my background in advertising, I understand the difficulty in trying to capture people's attention, especially when their attention spans are decreasing with each generation, but the way we speak to them is not through language that puts ourselves on a pedestal; but rather to speak to the person like we're a friend of theirs instead. When an emotional relationship is created, it's a lot easier to ask for favors i.e. to help buy a product, to like or share a post, to sign a petition, or, in this case, to go to a food festival. 

If you can speak to the person inside and grab their attention by maybe tapping into their shoes as a mother, a father, an office person that works a nine-to-five, a struggling student that is loading up on debt, etc., then it'll be a lot easier to connect with them. Also, the play and balance between logos, pathos, and ethos are important to make their "argument" believable, but at the end of the day, the person that makes the decision or not to come and experience the festival is the audience, not the organization. 

Another point to look into is where and how they're advertising their festival - is it email marketing or subscription letters, is it in print ads or magazines, is it on billboards and bus transits, or is it on social media? I, personally follow them on Instagram and have been since 2015, but even I haven't heard of the Terra Madre program or festival before researching about them a few weeks ago. I think they need to research where their target audience is coming from, where they're reacting or responding to them the most, and how they're interacting or responding to the organization. If they don't, they might be losing opportunities in other places or wasting their resources when they could be getting the attention of people that want to go to these festivals, like me.