SMOKING KILLS..?
In today's world, we are constantly told how badly cigarettes will destroy our health and just how addictive the sticks can be. As true as that may be, it seems that no matter how many anti-smoking advertisements and studies that we are exposed to, we still have trouble stopping people from falling into the deadly habit. Just like it states in the sentence above, even though we have trouble convincing them to quit, we will never have trouble creating advertisements trying to do so.
When watching this commercial, the first thing you get is nothing that connects your brain to smoking whatsoever. What you get after words is a moment where you start to have a smile on your face and it continues to grow and grow immediately after you hear the clients daughter asking her mom if she has seen her hamster. That follows with the conclusion to the add with the old line, "Smoking Kills." As I was trying to read the commercial, I seen that it used a Sociological approach, targeting the materials that people use in their everyday lives, but instead of selling it, they attack it. What came to mind when questioning it was if it was really effective. Yes it was funny and something people will remember but the commercial said smoking kills as if he died from smoking but all the commercial carried was a pet that died from a guy trying to smash his cigarettes. Instead of reminding viewers that the actual smoking of these sticks, is deadly, the commercial went another way that hits smokers further away from home and it has me sitting here wondering if the director or writer, really deems this commercial successful. It got famous and had comedy but what about the message?
It was my first time watching this video and I think it was somewhat funny in a sense . As a viewer I thought what he was stepping on was the box of cigarettes and the message that was trying to convey was cigarettes being bad and damaging. When the little girl asked for her hamster we can infer that was the thing stuck at the bottom of the carpet and it all made sense. I agree with you in this not being the best way to say smoking kills, I think the writer and director could have been more creative and realistic, by doing so the message would be stronger.
ReplyDeleteAfter watching the video, I wondered if it was even intended on being a non-smoking ad, and not just some comedy skit that got turned into a non-smoking ad with some subtitles. Maybe the director's intent was to think about the residual effects smoking has on others. As someone who's been smoking (unproudly) for years, I'm waiting for the ad that makes me want to quit, but the truth is, every ad against smoking, tickles my addiction, which is probably what big tobacco wants. To me, the most effective campaign against smoking, would be to completely remove cigarettes from the screen completely, especially laughable ads.
ReplyDeleteAfter watching this commercial, which is pretty funny honestly, I couldnt say that it was 100 percent intended to be a anti smoking ad. I couldn't see this being put on a local tv channel, even though the message is clear the way it is processed seems satirical and could not be taken seriously, at least in my eyes. Either way I think it gets the message across in a very different way than we're used to.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you that while watching the ad I had no idea that it would be related to smoking. Like some of the people that commented already, it even feels to me like some kind of parody or something meant to be more comedy than an actual anti-smoking commercial. It is definitely not conventional but it has an impact, especially the part when we realize what the man did with the hamster.
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