When we think of somebody or something being homeless we do not normally think of a polar bear, in an alleyway, in what looks to be some major city. Polar bears are usually thought of being happy up in the subarctic conditions of the north pole. The message that the rhetor (WWF) is trying to get across, is that if we do not do something to stop global warming, the polar bears will have their homes destroyed. They might not end up in the an alleyway in downtown Iowa City, but none the less it does a good job of getting the point across. The audience is whoever sees this advertisement in a magazine or checks it out online. The rhetor is constrained though by the fact that not everybody knows the ins and outs of global warmed, or maybe does not even know what global warming is. If this is the case, the audience probably has no idea what is going on in this advertisement and probably thinks the rhetor is crazy! The exigence of this message is a big deal because global warming is getting worse and worse by the day, and WWF believes something needs to be done about it.
WWF uses large amounts of pathos in this advertisement. Tugging on the emotions of the audience, they try to achieve that same effect as the sad wildlife commercials we see on television, only they do not take it too far. Instead, they put a "lighter side" on it, by showing something that probably will not happen but still drives the point home.
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