Sunday, September 26, 2010

















































I decided to analyze five anti-smoking ads. Anti-smoking ads use a lot of unspoken cultural symbols to shock us into thinking smoking is bad. I think it is also interesting to look at advertisements that tell you not to do or buy something. Most advertisements work by encouraging you, but anti-smoking ads try to discourage you from smoking. These ads all use a slightly different strategy to convey a slightly different message about the same topic, smoking.

The first ad is actually an advertisement for an aid to help people quit smoking. It is interesting to see how an ad for a product mimics the techniques of anti-smoking ads produced by non-profit organizations. This ad contains a message about how smoking will affect your looks. The numbers on the cake are supposed to lead us to the startling conclusion that the woman pictured is only 42, and she looks older because of smoking.

The second ad uses a familiar tobacco company mascot that we all recognize. Joe Camel was portrayed in tobacco ads as cool and in control, and to see him with his sunglasses off in a hospital bed is shocking. This ad implies that even Joe Camel is not free from the side effects of smoking.

The third ad uses the strong symbol of a pistol to tell us that smoking is fatal.

The fourth ad shows a child suffocating in a cloud of smoke. It uses this picture and words like "suicide" and "murder" to shock us into associating smoking with death.

The fifth ad has a more complex message. The image of the cigarette smoke in the shape of a noose uses the same "shocker" methods of the other ads, but this ad also has more positive message. The woman smoking seems to have an almost hopeful expression The words at the bottom are not about how smoking will kill you; they are about how quitting smoking will save your life.


2 comments:

  1. I think that the pictures that you chose for this assignment are perfect examples for how smoking can affect your lives. Not many people realize that smoking can cause a big hazard to your life. In the first picture where a woman was smoking from her cake with the candles in the number of 42, I found that troubling. At first I didn't recognize the numbers of the candles. I thought that she was just lighting her cigarette from the flame and didnt even notice that the numbers were that small. I had to do a double take because the woman was so old but yet, the age was so young. This just proves that smoking causes you to look and appear older.
    Your other image where there was a little boy crying with smoke around his head in the shape of a plastice bag was also troubling.Sometimes, we forget that not only does smoking slowly kill us, it kills the people around us. Second hand smoke is just as deadly as smoking. I think that it's a good idea for advertisments like these to help stop smoking.

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  2. Note: the last picture isn't loading for me. You may have to download the it and the upload from your computer.

    I like your selection, and I'm actually surprised at how their technique is very different from the other anti-smoking ads that have been posted. With exception of the one with the child, the ads don't resort to a form of guilt (for hurting others) but aim towards the self. Since "smoking kills" is well known to everyone who smokes, it is interesting how these ads employ design to shock.

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