Teenage Anti-Smoking Rhetoric Ads Analysis

Presently, within the US, the primary cause of preventable death is not alcohol, car accidents nor HIV/AIDS but astonishingly cigarettes. Tobacco consumption through smoking is attributed to almost every lung problem, vascular diseases, chronic bronchitis, pregnancy complications, emphysema and stroke. Consequently tobacco related illnesses claim greater than 440,000 lives annually; this is greater than all the other causes combined. Anti-tobacco literature indicates that whilst about 1,200 individuals die every day as a result of cigarette smoking the tobacco companies are attempting to create new smokers. The new smokers who are targeted through gimmicks as well as promotions are the teens and the youth in general; this is component of the population known as “replacement smokers” within the tobacco industry.  Due to the strict laws passed regarding tobacco consumption by the youth, the tobacco companies have been forced to extend adverts that will discourage teen smoking. According to Morbidity & Mortality (2010) about 20 percent of youths in high schools were smoking. The intention of this document is to evaluate the persuasive components concerning the television ads of the fresh type state anti-tobacco campaign pointed at teens.  

The rhetoric analysis

The analysis will feature persuasive ads by two tobacco companies; these ads are “Think. Don’t Smoke” by Phillip Morris as well as “Tobacco is Wacko, if You are a Teen” by Lorillard. To start with, “Think. Don’t Smoke” ad uses the most persuasive method of curbing the teenage smoking habits. The usage of teenagers to pass the message to fellow teenagers has been seen to extend a very great impact since it is persuasive. Teenagers place themselves at the positions of the people delivering the message. This ad shows boys that, girls dislike guys who smoke since they resemble monkeys’ whist smoking. Once the boys see how much un-cool it is to smoke since they girls will hate them or rather they will not be able to acquire a certain girl probably they stop smoking. This is a very persuasive ad since it touches on the most sensitive part of teenage life; relationships and dating. When the girl walks up to the boy she clearly has admired him and would like to “hang out” with him however after she realizes that he smokes she loudly proclaims how un-cool the behavior is, by asking the boy “do you think smoking makes you look cool”. This ultimately influences numerous youths smoking behaviors (Youtube, 2001).

Secondly, the “Tobacco is Wacko, if You are a Teen” by Lorillard uses the element of disgust and fear to pass its anti-smoking message; this through a series images depicting unhealthy mouths of people who smoke. The young man clearly shows some intent to smoke but when he sees the old man’s dark colored teeth and a mouth that looks absolutely dirty he declines the offer to smoke. These images within the ad prompts the youth to not even think smoking since their mouths will be dirty and they will look disgusting. The actuality that no youth wants to have a dirty mouth makes an almost good enough reason to stop smoking. Additionally the usage of a youth within the ad makes it very impactful since the teenage audience will correlate themselves with the message provider. This ad also shows that people who smoke end-up living in dirty places; this would scare any youth who is thinking of having a bright future with a good house and a car (Youtube, 2008).

   The two ads take the shape of social marketing campaigns; usually known as public service advocacy and communication campaigns. These campaigns are usually geared towards catching the public’s attention through the usage of advertising techniques. Phillip Morris and Lorillard use the social marketing approach to persuade the kids from engaging in the dangerous behavior. The two ads have merged marketing advertising as well as public relations towards disseminating the information aimed at changing the society’s conduct (Kotler, Roberto & Lee, 2002).

The mainly dominant approaches towards social marketing ads are guided by the social cognitive theory. The social cognitive theory states that some if not every behavior is learnt via observation. For instance, if a youth sees how un-cool it is to smoke on the media they will probably not want to smoke. Additionally the theory asserts that people’s behaviors are usually environmentally as well as internally controlled. The environmental events of include messages from peers and media and this may determine whether an individual smokes or not. The two ads have utilized the three-tier strategy towards promoting behavior. The three-tier strategy involves informing persuading as well as training (Kotler, Roberto & Lee, 2002).   

Ethos: the two ads are very convincing due to the character of the speakers. The usage of youths in the adverts is very convincing. The credibility of both word as well as image can be authenticated. Since the speaker’s credibility is an essential component of the messages, the two adverts show actual youths interacting and persuading fellow youths to stop smoking (Youtube, 2001).  This means the sources of the adverts are credible. Further there is no visible bias an accuracy of terms can be verified. Phillip Morris and Lorillard being credible companies attain the credibility measure; this is because features of an endorser such as trustworthiness, expertise and attractiveness increase the delivery effectiveness.  Researchers state that the more credible a source is the appealing it is to the audience.

Pathos: these refer to the emotional appeal of an ad or communication creates to the audience’s feelings. The “Think. Don’t Smoke” ad appeals to the emotions of a teenager urging them to think about the consequences before deciding to engage in smoking activities ( it is hurting for a boy to be rejected by a girl because of smoking ). The emotional responses towards the advert induce the appeal. Additionally, the “Tobacco is Wacko, if You are a Teen” ad appeals to the teenagers of how un-cool it is to smoke depicted by the disgusting mouths images (Youtube, 2008). The emotional responses towards advertising impact the mindset towards ads. The two ads trigger emotional appeals which in turn offer mental basis for mindset formation as well as behavior. The two ads uses the emotional inducing appeal of fear; studies regarding the effective usage of fear and humor in ads has indicated that they offer the required emotional responses.

Logos:  this involves the presentation of evidence in order for appealing to the audience. The fact that the two ads depict the diseases as well as other side effects makes the evidence quite satisfactory. The Lorillard ad shows an individual who smokes with a very dirty an unpleasant mouth. The Phillip Morris ad shows boys who smoke are never liked by girls (Youtube, 2001). Aristotle argued that evidence is the most important aspect of persuasion this is because it triggers the characters inner emotion.   Evidence is normally defined as facts as well as figures provided to support the claims whilst argument refers to the way evidence is presented to the audience (Youtube, 2008). The two ads let the youthful audience know the results of anti-social behaviors. The ads calls upon the smoking youths to all stop the smoking behaviors since others have previously been able to stop.

Conclusion

The two rhetorical ads have to a great extent helped to convince the teenagers to stop smoking are avoid engaging in smoking habits. But despite the actuality that these ads are geared towards preventing kids to smoke, the attempts within these messages have been seen to encourage smoking by rebellious youth: the attitude “it cannot happen to me” amongst teens makes them smoke more. The rhetoric analysis allows for the evaluation of ads impacts to the target population. The “Tobacco is Wacko, if You are a Teen” as well as “Think. Don’t Smoke” ads are an illustration of how much companies overtime have attempted to prevent teen smoking. Though some individuals might term this an ironic act or because they were coerced by the state, but nevertheless the ads assists persuades youths to avoid smoking. The anti-smoking campaigns require using both traditional and modern ways of advertisement to pass on their messages. This would to a great extent help capture more youth. This could be the incorporation of ads in the newspapers, digital media as well as the social media.  The “Tobacco is Wacko, if You are a Teen” as well as “Think. Don’t Smoke” among others require to be initiated to assist more youths curb the vice. Further the effectiveness of every ad should be stated so that non-effectual ads are eliminated. Though some individuals normally indicates that the adverts persuade the rebellious youths to engage in smoking, I suppose that the ads prevent more kids from smoking as compared   to those that are persuaded.

References

Youtube. (2001). Philip Morris USA Commercial – July 2, 2001 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdarTJv8tD8

Youtube. (2008). Tobacco is Wacko (if your a teen) [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnhBNwLWdHQ

Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (June 4, 2010). Youth risk behavior surveillance. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/ss/ss5905.pdf.

Kotler, P., Roberto, N. & Lee, N. (2002). Social Marketing: Improving the Quality of Life. Second Edition. Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.