"You Can Click, But You Can't Hide"

This visual rhetoric is a piece of propaganda against piracy, specifically downloading things onto ones computer. The ad plays on the movie rating system such as PG for Parental Guidance, or R for Restricted. This ad displays I for Illegal Downloading. It plays off the common phrase of “You can run, but you can’t hide,” but changes it to relate to the theme of piracy. It says that you can click, meaning download music or movies, but you can’t hide. It is trying to scare the idea into people who practice piracy that they will be found and punished eventually. This is definitely a persuasive message and an attempted scare tactic. It is designed to put doubt in the person’s head.


The people who made this ad also want to create awareness that downloading these things is illegal and that there are people who are seeking to find out those who do practice piracy in order to punish them.


In addition to the movie rating theme and the play on words of “you can click but you can’t hide,” The ad includes a picture of someone about to click a mouse. This too sends a message: The finger is raised and about to click the mouse but hasn’t clicked it yet. This seems to suggest that there is still a chance for someone to not click and stop their illegal downloading. In addition to all of these things the ad makes use of different coloring. The picture is in black and white which makes it look more bleak and foreboding. It creates an emotion in the viewer to see this as a bad thing and ads to the persuasion.