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Ms. Caruso
English 1101
6, June2014
Smoking

According to the World Health Organization, The tobacco epidemic is one of the
biggest public health threats the world has ever faced, killing nearly six million people a year.
Hence, most countries have their ongoing open battle against this problem in different means
and levels. One of those means, which is an effective and informative mean, is the design of the
attractive and eye-catching advertisements. One of those advertisements that I have come
across, in blog over the net knows as blog spot, was a very symbolic one that coined a clear
message in my mind. At first glance to this advertisement, I was thinking about how much
damage the smokers can make to their health, and how they are killing their selves slowly as
the advertisement describes. What grabbed my attention is the idea of this picture and how
creative the designer was by telling with few words that the cigarettes are just like a timed
bomb that will explode sooner or later. What also attracts, is how direct this picture is, what I
mean is this picture wants us to know where smoking is going to lead us. However, some
people may look at it from another standpoint, and that depends on their knowledge.
This design is so simple with a light color for the bomb that comes from the lighter .Also,
it has a black back ground and small empty space around the picture. In terms of analyzing,
what makes this picture unique are the idea and the simple design that tells us the idea without
Commented [Ma1]: There is a way to actually insert a header.
Will show you during verbal peer review
Commented [Ma2]: Try to remain the authority on the subject
and state it in a way that sounds like fact.
Commented [Ma3]: Perhaps smoking cigarettes would be
more appropriate here. Cigarettes themselves arent explosive. A
simple rewording would help here.
Commented [Ma4]: You can combine these two words.
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exaggeration. This picture is arranged in a way that makes us recognize what the designer
wants us to know. First of all, he used a really small empty space around the picture with a dark
back ground to make us focus on the bomb, and by pointing the lighter to the cigarette to
ignite; he wants us to imagine what we do to ourselves by burning up our bodies despite our
full understanding of consequences. Using a dark back ground is so smart idea because, in this
way we will look only at the light colors. This advertisement does have few words, however,
each word of them carries a very deep meaning. Which makes it different than any other
picture. In order to understand the meaning of the picture you do not need a great effort to
focus on and analyze the relationship between the lighter, the bomb and the cigarette. This
content gives us a brief summery about which kind of certain future smokers are going to face.
On the contrary, some people see this advertisement from different angle, as a boring and
unattractive advertisement. Because, it does not have many words that analysis the photo, and
it has a dark back ground that makes the photo ugly.
Actually, this advertisement presents two arguments, the first argument, is to enjoy
lighting the cigarette and relax for a while and then confront the effects of the explosion, which
may come at sudden. And the second argument, is to stop smoking and understand why it
leads to death eventually. In terms of illustrating more about this topic that the advertisement
is discussing, we could see that it is so dangerous, because this is not the first advertisement of
this kind being made about what could smoking ultimately lead to. What makes smoking a very
Important and serious subject is because smokers are increasing every day, which explains that
many people around the world do know the consequences of smoking but still smoking. We
Commented [Ma5]: Combine
Commented [Ma6]: End the sentence here and start again with
By pointing..
Commented [Ma7]: comma
Commented [Ma8]: I would personally reword this part of the
sentence to help it flow better. For example maybe: what type of
future smokers could possibly face if they continue to smoke
Commented [Ma9]: I would not use Because to start a
sentence
Commented [Ma10]: I would use the word analyze here
Commented [Ma11]: could lead to death"
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could see that this is an important and serious subject and it is evidenced in the picture when
we look at the bomb, I think the designer used the bomb to express how big the problem is. I
think the major purpose from this advertisement is to grab smokers and nonsmokers attention
to a major problem that is sending people to graves with their acceptance and of their destiny.
If we are going to talk about the past the viewers for this kind of advertisement would
be the ages between Twenty one to Fifty five. Sadly, that has changed over the few past years.
Nowadays, all ages might be an audience for this kind of advertisement, I said all ages because,
Young children imitate adults, in fact that is normal because, what is always in childrens mind
is what adults do is always right.
I found this advertisement in a blog, named blog spot directed to the youth audience
interested in finding helpful information about health. The idea of this blog is to place anything
new about health in an attractive way. For example, the writers always try to upload a strange
pictures that is related to the topic in order to grab peoples attention to read about it.
What sticks into my mind about this photo is the timer which is counting down the
seconds and minutes, and this what makes the advertisement interesting. If we take a close
look at the advertisement we could find that there is a lighter, bundle of cigarettes and a clock
that gives the impression of a ready to explode bomb. I think what I can see as a symbolic is the
short life span of smokers.
This advertisement remind me of how god created us with health, and then, how we by
our choice intention kill ourselves. There are a lot of advertisements about smoking, but this
advertisement is different in the idea of grabbing the attention, it has a unique idea that I have
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not seen in any other advertisement. Because of the strange idea that this advertisement has, it
will easily influence the audiences attention and it will be clear for people that smoking will kill
them sooner or later. This image appeals to emotions, because it indicate what the fate of
smokers is, and how they could decide to put their life in jeopardy.
I think that most audience would agree with me that this advertisement is attractive.
However, some will take a deep look into it and some will just look at it and then will ignore it.
Considering this photo as an important photo that describes a lot about smokers destiny or
considering this photo as a silly photo will without controversy depends on whether you are
educated or not. For example, educated people will look at this advertisement as a massage to
smokers or a warring to them that they have a time to stop smoking otherwise they will be sent
to graves. On the other hand, uneducated people will look at it from a different perspective,
most of the smokers believe that all what doctors say is an exaggeration so they do not care
until they face a problem in their health.
In fact, this image gives a full story and does not absolutely need any alphabetical text
and it conveys the massage crystal-clearly. Historically, most societies and nation considered
smoking as coulter habit. Which imposed considerable economic burden. Although this picture
does not make a clear ethical appeal for many for some it does as smoking can lead to
addiction.
In short, this advertisement is like a massage for tobacco smokers that they still have
time to stop smoking, before they kill themselves. As the World Health Organization have
mentioned, the world is facing a tobacco epidemic, which means smoking is considered as a
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serious disease. However, some people look at this advertisement form different perspectives,
therefor, judgment on whether this advertisement has been don for a purpose or not depends
on how we look towards smoking. Actually, this advertisement gave an important details in
Likening cigarettes to bombs by putting a dark back ground to make us focus on the bombs
only. What makes this advertisement controversial topic, is because smokers are increasing
every day and not only adults are smoking but also teenagers, which makes the problem even
bigger.