Sunday, January 29, 2012
Quit Smoking Advertisement
Many people continue to smoke these days disregarding all the warnings about the dangers of smoking. Many people think about how smoking effects themselves and the smokers but people usually forget about the children having to live in the same house as the smokers. Smoking kills many people everyday and when one of those smokers dies and leaves a kid behind it is very sad and hard on the kid's life. If that was a single parent then that child has to live in a foster home and most likely has health problems from breathing in all the smoke from their parent. Is smoking in a house with a child being responsible? Should it be illegal because it endangers the child? Should smoking become illegal because it makes kids lose their parents everyday? Children deserve to live in a safe house where their parents are caring for them and not dying because of smoking. Is smoking more harmful for the child in the long run than it is for the actual parent that is smoking?
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Response to Prompt 7:
ReplyDeleteThis is a good advertisement and I am glad you put it up. The advertisement has a very powerful effect and it is difficult to watch because of the sympathy that the viewer feels watching the little boy begin to cry. I felt very impacted by the ad and from my perspective, it was difficult to watch because of the feeling it left. With that regard, I believe the ad does do something to send a message to the smoking community and corporation; the message that smoking is a selfish, inconsiderate, and irresponsible act that should not be as socially accepted as it is today. This ad correlates very closely to a previous post with a similar message. Both ads sent the message to quit smoking but this ad used a different approach. However, this ad does not show smoking once. Instead, it shows a tired and ill-looking mom who steps away (is there one minute and then gone the next) to somewhere that is left to interpret to the audience. Did the mom step away to go smoke? Did she pass away? With the assumption that her death was smoking related. That thought provoking question leads to the realization that smoking has a severe effect on those who smoke but the children and everyone else who does not smoke as well. To answer your question(s), I believe smoking is irresponsible to say the least. It is an act out of self-satisfaction and has a greater impact on the health of those to suffer around smoking. It is difficult to answer if it should be illegal because of the health effects and endangerment to children, but I will say that it is something that should not be put-off quickly. While I believe smoking will not become illegal in the U.S. (this ad was for a foreign country I believe that was Australian), and I have said that before in earlier posts, I believe that harsher restrictions/legislation should and will continue to be born. This ad “triggers” the ideas and values that smoking portrays with considerable attention to the children’s health and emotion that is used as a symbol for every child that must endure the effects of smoke as well. To conclude, I believe this ad does a great job of using a busy trafficked area, with a small child to symbolize society’s youth and the impact that smoking does leave to everyone. Not to use smoking once except for the commentary at the end describing the organization the ad came from, is a useful and effective tool to show that the child doesn’t have the ability to smoke. Why would they? The answer: they wouldn’t. The parents take care of that for them, when that is the message this ad is trying to overcome. This technique seems to apply to the audience of smokers who are parents, who do have an interaction with children and not to those who are single men and women that do not fit that category. Why would the makers of the ad not include every smoker in there audience? Why would they do so and was that intentional?
This advertisement uses pathos through its usage of the sad little boy. This little boy is a symbol of human compassion. His abandonment by his mom represents our abandonment of compassion for our loved ones. "Our" includes smokers, as smoking is a selfish act, and even broader, the population who stands by and allows it to happen (cigarette companies, friends and family hesitant to intervene, etc.). So to answer your question Nick, I think that every smoker, and every person, at least every person with a heart, is addressed in this ad. The trafficked area is a great observation. I think that the physical traffic could represent the traffic in our lives keeping us from considering the people who we love. Whether you're a smoker with a child who depends on you or the neighbor of a smoker who needs support to quit, this ad is calling you to remember compassion and help in the fight against tobacco.
ReplyDeletePrompt 6:
ReplyDeleteThe author of this commercial is trying to emphasize another consequence of smoking that isn't always thought about: how a parent smoking can cause long-term effects on a child when he or she is left without a mother or father. This commercial is very effective in getting that point across. There are many rhetorical techniques used which helps the audience relate to the situation better and really drives the point home. The first rhetorical technique I noticed was the setting of a busy area-possibly an airport? This setting was very important in making this an effective commercial because it was somewhat chaotic and at times the audience could not see the little boy and it kind of gave the audience the same feel of being lost that the little boy was having. Another technique was how the mother disappeared with the blink of an eye. This was very unexpected and again gave the audience a quick thought of panic and worry for the little boy. It also reflects the effects of death on the people left behind how it seems like the person was just beside you and now they're gone. A final rhetoric technique that I noticed was the ending shot of the no smoking sticker. I thought that was a much more effective way to get the point across than having words come up across the screen because it makes it feel like the situation really is occuring. It also gets the audience thinking and is something more familiar they can hold onto and will help them think of this commercial and the consequenses of smoking every time they see another anti-smoking sticker on a window somewhere.
I think this advertisement is very special, although there is no screen about cigarette, it better illustrates what the harm would bring to people, not only the smokers, but also the people we loved. In this advertisement, we can see that when the little boy found he was left by his mother, how sad he is. Imagining that if his mother really die, how great hurt would on the little boy. In this way, it would be more effetively to encourage people to quit smoking. To answer Sam's questions, I do not think smoking would become illegal, at least at present. Since it would make the tobacco industries into a chaos and also would affect the whole economy. However, smoking should be put away from children. Smoking would not only harm smokers' health, but also cause troubles to people who are around the smokers. As a result, smokers should only smoke in the required places.
ReplyDeleteThe use of an emotional aspect helps connect to the audience in a much stronger way. I feel like it would hold a personal connection for smokers with children, who would then maybe think about the outcome of what could happen from the result of being a smoker. The rush of people you notice in the ad might have a rhetorical point to it, representing the chaos in ones life. When the mother disappears, it shows how fast ones life could end and the effects it could have on their loved ones. Now to answer your question...if it were up to me, I would be against smoking around children and others who don't wish to be affected by second hand smoke. Unfortunately, nothing is going to come from that, and as of now, it has to be up to the parents to hold the responsibility of keeping smoking away from their children.
ReplyDeletePrompt 5:
ReplyDeleteThere seems to be a direct reference to a specific audience: parents. The creator of this commercial seems to very specifically have a target audience here, and I think they do a good job with it. They believe that their audience has a smoking problem, but that they potentially will realize what they value more, their children. They confront their audience in a very convicting way to help them almost show a value on something completely different. An "It's not about you, its about your kids" idea that would be very moving for me if I had children.
Yes, I completely agree with you. This anti-smoking advertisement has a very specific target: parents. So, this kind of advertisement will more shock to the viewers: parents. Because parents care more about children than others. Parents can do huge scarification for their children. I believe most parents who are smoking after watching this advertisement will rethink their smoking behavior. In this point, the advertisement succeeds.
DeleteThis commercial clearly got it's point across about parents who smoke. I completely agree with Nick's point of view towards this advertisement. I felt completely overwhelmed by the sad look upon the little boys face. This commercial is really different from the other commercials that involve alcohol or drug abuse because it shows such a different view. Many children have lost their parents in a store once or twice and suffered a depressing moment where they felt really lonely. Going through a lonely phase for a lifetime could really scar someone, especially a child. It's hard to know if that little boy will ever find his mom, but if she was a smoker, he could lose her again even if she did find him. This commercial is really trying to get out to all the parents that are smokers so they can see the huge impact that they make on their kids.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletePrompt 1:
ReplyDeleteThis is a unique anti-smoking advertisement. Because cigarettes never appear in this video. A young mother and a kid walk into a subway station that is crowded with people. And then, the mother leaves his kid, but viewers do not know the reason. The kid looks worried and look for his mother at first. And at, tears come to his eyes. Viewers are infected by the atmosphere. At last, the narrative comes,”this is your child looks after losing you for a minute, just imagine if they lose for life”. The last scene is a sigh telling you to quit smoking. The implication of this advertisement is telling viewers that if you are always smoking, your family, your children will lose you at last which will bring endless pathos to them. Furthermore, this advertisement using the scene that the kid cries sadly is reminding viewers that how poor your children will be after losing you. Using a visual scene will provide a more directviewing way telling people how harmful smoking is. Passers-by in this video also telling viewers implicitly that you are the only one can give your children protection. No one cares about your children if you die because of smoking. That will give viewers an indelible impression that smoking will bring pathos to not only yourself but also your children.
Smoking in a house with a child is definitely irresponsible. Because children are much more frail than adults. The second-hand smoking will bring more harm to their health. However, making smoking illegal is not realistic. Because tobacco industry has strong ability to lobby politicians. The best way we can make is stopping smoking beginning from ourselves and families.
At first it shows a really busy area with everything building up and then the Mom just magically disappears. Then the child begins to cry after he looks around frantically and cannot see his mother anywhere around the airport. The impact of that finally hits the audience. This is the big climatic part of the quit smoking ad. The advertisement could be geared more towards the children as if to say that if their parents do smoke, try and make them stop. Saying that the child should tell the parent to try and tell their parents to imagine life for them if they died making this selfish choice for their enjoyment.
ReplyDeleteOne of the symbols here that we noticed is the fact that the young boy is all alone in a public place, and this could represent him growing up without a mother and lost in the real world. It is also worth noting that even when the young boy is clearly lost, nobody stops to help him. The setting around the young boy seems to be a professional urban setting, while the mom is dressed pretty casually compared to the rest of the people there. Additionally, we never even see a cigarette in the whole commercial or any smoking at all. The fact that the mother smokes seems to put a great deal of responsibility on the boy, which he has no control or influence over. The fact that they are in a public transportation area, such as a subway terminal, could be interpreted as a sign that they are moving on to a different place and their lives have changed. We also never even see the father at all. This may be because he is out smoking, is back at home, work, or has passed away because of smoking. The commercial uses heavy emotional appeal to get its message across to us. The fact that the commercial centers around a little boy is important considering that this would appeal to our emotions much stronger than if it was an older person. The mom never even stops to talk to the boy and tell him why she is leaving. She just disappears for the rest of the scene and kind of gets swept away by the real world and lost in the crowd.
ReplyDelete