Analysis: Five Reasons To Switch The Straw

In a world plagued by growing amounts of trash and decreasing attention spans, several companies and organizations work diligently to increase public awareness of this major environmental issue. In the United States and countless other developed nations, we practice a disposable lifestyle; each day, we throw away an incredulous amount of styrofoam cups, plastic forks, and coffee cups with the widely recognized green and white image of a Siren donned with a starry crown. Yet, one infamous disposable item snagged the limelight in recent times: the plastic straw. With rituals like “No Straw November,” the often candy-colored straw is now a hotly debated subject. New alternatives pop up every day, prompted by environmentally-conscious companies,
Firstly, there is a lot of the color green found in both infographics. Green is a symbolic color for the earth and environmentalism. Therefore, it makes perfect sense why the authors chose to pair their environmentally aware infographics with a color that is strongly associated with being sustainable. Green sends the message across that the things in this infographic really care and focus heavily on the environment. In “5 Reasons to Switch the Straw,” the design is very minimal and clean. There are circularly cropped pictures accompanying some of the text, which evokes a modern, polished feel. As a whole, the infographic is balanced and simple, with text that does not vary much in size, color, or font. This could suggest that the author values what is being said in the infographic more than fancy designs that catch your eye. On the contrary, World Centric’s “Do You Really Need That Drinking Straw?” screams for attention through a variety of textual font, colors, and vibrant cartoon images. This infographic subtly reminds me of the infographics I found in my well-loved National Geographic Kids’ Almanac. The variety of images draw my eyes in and I find myself hungrily reading each piece of information accompanying them. Thus, the images help offset the amount of text and create an undeniable attraction, which is one of the main strategies of conveying information through an
For example, in “5 Reasons to Switch the Straw,” the first image is of a clear plastic drink container with a green straw. This looks a lot like the cups and straws that iced drinks packaged with at Starbucks. Starbucks is a popular place that many audience members are likely to either frequent or know about. Some people may even order multiple drinks from Starbucks in a given week. The text next to the image talks about the frightening amount of straws used every day in the United States. The author chose to pair this image with the accompanying text to connect the statistic with the reader on a more personal level. As readers, we may be quick to exclude ourselves from a negative statistic, yet this image ties us dangerously close with the major environmental issue that is an overload of plastic straws. This might lead to a bit of guilt, which could blossom into ditching the straw and switching to a more sustainable alternative. The “Do You Really Need That Drinking Straw?” also has an interesting image of a very sad, anthropomorphic earth being constricted by a straw that looks like it is leaking a blood-like liquid. This image is paired with the following statistic, “The circumference of the earth is 24,901 miles which would equal to 197,215,920 straws. We could circle the planet more than 2 ½ times a day with our straw consumption!” The image of the