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Jordan Goodspeed
Thomas Tooley
ENC1101-40
28 September 2014
Smoking Advertisements and Commercials
Smoking advertisements and commercials are incredibly powerful. The Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention release advertisements and videos every year to get people to see
the downsides to smoking. Anyone who watches TV has seen the numerous television
commercials that the CDC puts out, like the commercial with the older woman who,
unfortunately, has a hole in her throat and tries to speak normally. Another well-known one
shows a man who lost both his legs and is putting on his prosthetics. These and the countless
others are hard to look at and also very depressing. The advertisements make the idea of
something like that happening to you or your family a very real possibility. The motive behind
these forms of propaganda is geared to the vulnerability of the human mind; their success is a
result of the commercial and advertisements content that plays on the emotions of the viewer.
These ads are effective because they show the realities and effects of smoking cigarettes.
Real life is much deeper than fiction which makes the advertisements and commercials
incredibly overwhelming. When you stop and look at one of them, they make you never want to
touch a cigarette or even go near one again. They play on human emotion in the rawest sense and
are so gut-wrenching that they even make people give up a difficult addiction. The makers of
these advertisements and commercials know what they are doing. They know that this is

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probably the most effective way to get their story out there. Just put real people and their
struggles on national television and people will pay attention. It isnt fake and done by actors,
like every other piece of advertisement on this planet. I have to admit when I first saw these
advertisements, I was so shocked. I could barely even look at them and it kind of made me
ashamed that I ever even thought about taking up smoking.
These advertisements are powerful pieces of imagery. The new advertisements
show real life people and the trauma they have suffered. Brandons advertisement is one of many
that are incredibly graphic. Brandon was diagnosed at 18 with Buergers disease which blocks
your blood vessels and can potentially cause infection in the hands
and feet. Brandon has lost both legs and some fingers just from
smoking cigarettes for a couple of years ("Brandons Story"). He is
shown in the ad with both his lower legs missing. He is purposely
sitting on a bed with his prosthetics next to him to show the reality
of his situation. The image alone is so moving it makes one wish
that is something that would never happen to you and to quit before
it is too late.
An important aspect of the images shown in these smoking advertisements is that
not one of these photos has been digitally altered. In magazines such as Vogue or Cosmopolitan,
it is almost impossible to find a picture of someone that hasnt been photo shopped. They are
always digitally altered and touched up to make them appear better than they actually are, but not
on any of these advertisements. They are designed specifically to let the people see truly what
these smokers look like. At age 45, Roosevelt had a heart attack and had to have heart surgery to
put stents in. That didnt make his condition better. He had to have six bypass surgeries just

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because of the effects of smoking cigarettes ("Roosevelts

Story"). He is shown on an ad holding up his shirt and in the
middle of his chest is a huge scar from the surgeries from the
top of his chest all the way down to his stomach. You can
clearly see the darkened scar tissue running all the way down
his sternum. This provokes a heart wrenching reaction in
peoples mind. The CDC wants the public to see the damage
that life, with the help of smoking cigarettes, has done to these
people. These ads arent photo shoots. You can clearly see
every wrinkle, every scar, every stoma, and every vein on each of the smokers. The fact that
society has basically trained our eye to see perfection in every magazine and advertisement and
then see the pure truth in these ads is very shocking. It makes you understand that these are real
people with real struggles, not some fabricated sob stories.
Every word on these advertisements was typed specifically with a purpose in mind, to
make the viewer of these ads think twice about smoking. Smoking
is an addiction and it is very hard to imagine for smokers that it can
have negative effects on their health when it feels so harmless to
do. The point of making these forward statements is to persuade; a
good way to do that is to play on peoples emotions. They put these
blatant statements on these ads to get you to feel sorry for these
people. One of the advertisements is of an older woman, Terrie who
was diagnosed at the age of 40 with oral cancer and then throat
cancer. The doctors had to remove her larynx so she had to speak

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with an artificial voice through a stoma in her throat ("Terries Story"). The advertisement shows
Terrie holding a picture of her grandson. The words that are on the ad say record your voice for
loved ones while you still can. She doesnt have her real voice anymore so her grandson cant
hear it. This picture is very emotional but the words make it even more traumatic. Her own
grandson can never be able to hear his grandmothers warm voice that she had before her larynx
was removed. This bold statement adds to the heartbreak of smoking and gets the viewers to stop
and think about why they smoke and if it is even worth it.
Another thing about the words is the actual text itself. Every single statement on these ads
is in a specific style. The statement about each smoker is the biggest font on the ad. They are the
biggest words on the screen because the CDC wants you to immediately read it after looking at
the picture. They want your eye to immediately be drawn to it and as a result feel sorry for these
people. The words are also in all capitals for the same purpose. It is important that you read these
words because not only are they clever, but they contain a purpose to help people to see smoking
in a different light. These words are a blinding white and are also italicized. They want to make
sure you are truly getting what you need to get out of it so they make it a color that stands out the
most to draw attention to it.
Another thing to point out is the design of the ads. Every single smoking ad from the
CDC is formatted nearly the same. One aspect is that every smoker is the main focus and the
background is completely out of focus. This is done intentionally to parallel the reality that when
a smoker is faced with one of these life-changing circumstances, everything else is merely
background noise. Their poor health will always be first and foremost on their minds. The people
and their stories will now define them for the rest of their lives. Whats in the background will
always be blurry to them, hard to reach for the rest of their lives.

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Another aspect of design is the colors used. There are no bright colors used in any of
these ads. The colors are toned down and somber because that is what the images convey. They
reinforce the sadness of their subjects because of what has happened to them. Terries shirt is a
deep blue, Roosevelts is a pale blue, and Brandons is a pale green. None of these colors jump
out at you because they are not supposed to. Also, in these ads, nobody is smiling. Every single
person is giving a frown and sad or hard eyes to the camera. Of course they are not smiling. Why
would they be? If it were an advertisement depicting how they survived cancer, Im sure they
would be smiling, but not in an ad designed to convince others to quit smoking.
At the bottom left of every single CDC smoking advertisement is a dark gray box with
white lettering stating what has happened to each person in the ad. There is also a fact of
smoking tied into this short story and at the end of every one is this statement, You can quit. For
free help, call 1-800-QUIT-NOW. This gives any passerby of the ad the boosted motivation for
quitting; a chance to call right then and there, right when your emotions are peaked. When you
are feeling incredibly sad and guilty about smoking, they give you their number to directly call.
At the top left of these ads, there is another dark gray box with white outlining saying a tip from
a former smoker with the words former smoker bigger than the rest of the statement. Right
away that draws our eye and tells you that a former smoker is saying something of importance,
saying that the viewer, too, can someday be a former smoker, in the most desirable
circumstances.
An interesting aspect of the CDC ads is that they made a lot of the more heartbreaking
stories into commercials. When you first see these commercials, the images are shocking at first
you can barely look at it. The commercials came first and then they made the advertisements as
an addition. If you are walking on the street and you see these advertisements, you know exactly

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where they come from. You know it is a smoker who has had terrible consequences from it and
they are trying to get you not to smoke or to quit because you have probably seen this person in a
commercial.
The commercials are very somber and depressing. They have no music in them at all. All
you hear is silence and the people telling their story. In the video CDC: Tips from Former
Smokers - Terrie's Ad, Terrie is telling her story about how the only voice her grandson has ever
heard is her talking through a stoma which would probably be incredibly scary to a young boy.
After she is finished talking, there is a couple seconds of silence. This allows her story to sink in
and potentially break your heart. It makes you truly think twice about smoking. It is a moment to
reflect and think if you should really be smoking or not.
The CDC advertisements and commercials arent really targeted towards any specific age
group. They are meant to influence everybody, whether it is young teenagers who are very
impressionable and thinking about smoking to look cool to old adults who should quit
engaging in this nasty habit after years of chain smoking. The fact that on the ads there is a sixtysomething year old and on another there is a twenty-something year old proves that. It is
showing people that at any age smoking is a terrible thing to do and if you engage in it, there will
be consequences. The CDC makes sure to put a diverse set of people on their ads to show any
race, gender, age, etc., the same concept. The universal nature of these ads and commercials is to
show that nobody is immune to the effects of smoking. Not race, nor income or education can
help you.
These ads and commercials are now showcased everywhere because the medias idea of
smoking has changed dramatically. Fifty years ago, almost everyone smoked because it wasnt

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considered bad for your health like it is now. It was basically a pastime back then. There have
been countless studies about the effects of smoking cigarettes and a lot more real life examples
that show just how harmful it can be towards your health. They use these powerful stories and
images accompanied with the text to change your mind about smoking which can be a tough
thing to do. The text alone is so powerful it makes me sick at the thought of ever touching a
cigarette. Just looking at the image alone would probably not change my mind but that single
statement coupled with the image changes everything in the advertisements. The commercials
are a whole different story. I immediately change my mind about smoking just looking at the
people in the commercials. A still image is one thing, but actually seeing a video of them makes
it all the more real. The people in the CDC advertisements have made themselves a voice.
Through their personal struggles they have managed to put themselves out there and become a
symbol for why everyone should not smoke and this tactic is proven to be extremely effective
through emotion and human vulnerability.

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Works Cited
"Brandon's Story." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention, 01 July 2014. Web. 13 Oct. 2014.

<http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/campaign/tips/stories/brandon.html>.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Advertisement. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/campaign/tips/resources/ads/tips-ad-brandon-full-v1a.pdf>.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Advertisement. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/campaign/tips/resources/ads/tips-ad-roosevelt-full.pdf>.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Advertisment. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/campaign/tips/resources/ads/tips-2-ad-terrie-full.pdf>.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). " CDC: Tips from Former Smokers - Terrie's
Ad." Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 12 Mar. 2012. Web. 13. Oct. 2014.
"Roosevelt's Story." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, 01 July 2014. Web. 13 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/campaign/tips/stories/roosevelt.html>.
"Terrie's Story." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, 27 June 2014. Web. 13 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/campaign/tips/stories/terrie.html>.