The first thing I noticed about the site is its design. The graphics are all clearly intended to present a sense of wholesomeness...there are blue skies and green leaves and (perfect) yellow ears of corn. The layout is fairly simple and open, giving a kind of shout-out to simpler times. Then there are the photos...oh yes, the photos. On the first page alone, there is a short slideshow of pictures that cycles through. There are five photos total, and each photo is shown next to a statistic or quote that supports HFCS. All five photos feature freakishly happy children, and only two have adults (clearly parents) present who are 100% focused on the smiling children. Everyone's smiling and everyone's eating, and all the food is "wholesome" American food...pancakes with raspberries, sandwiches, fruit, and more fruit. In fact, there's fruit in every picture which sends the message that all these happy (and non-obese) people are eating natural sugars...and since the site's main purpose is to present HFCS as a natural sweetener, they seem to be sending that message by association (since fruit obviously contains natural sugars, but doesn't contain HFCS). They also clearly want their readers to think about the children, and how these "natural" sweeteners are good for them.
The site appears to be geared toward parents; there are 7 tabs at the top of the page, and the first one is "HFCS & Your Family" while the others boast "facts" and "science" and "news" and "experts" -- clearly they are using these documents and people to play on their readership's ethos (especially when it comes to their use of "experts" and scientific evidence). When a parent looks at a website and sees that there are facts, studies, scientific findings, and news articles, they're going to be more likely to believe that what they're reading is true. The site's entire design is dedicated to marrying logos and pathos -- the use of so many logos-heavy documents (FDA studies, scientific reports, etc.) in conjunction with so many pathos-laden photographs (there are more pretty, happy, healthy families and young professionals on each page) is clearly meant to convince the reader through multiple avenues that they should not be afraid of HFCS...that they should embrace it!
The site's title says it all. It's called "SweetSurprise.com: The Facts About High Fructose Corn Syrup." The site exists to "surprise" its readers with the "facts" about HFCS -- to show them how good it really is by using evidence that will allow them to refute the "myths" about HFCS and to give them the tools they need to prove to others that HFCS is a sweet surprise after all...a healthy and natural sweetener that every parent should be glad to spoon into their childrens' mouths without hestitation.
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