Ad 1250 words

Megan Matthews
ENGL 201
Mr. Block
March 10, 2008
Ad
As I began my quest to finding an advertisement, I started to think about what interests me the most. When I started looking through magazines for a good ad, I found that cigarette ads are completely gross, and can be found in almost any magazine. Smoking is a harmful addiction that affects people of all ages, genders and cultures. It becomes an addiction that many people struggle to break and sometimes cannot break. Companies that produce cigarettes are not concerned about the health of its consumers but rather the sale of their product and the amount of money they make off that product. I started to think about just how common cigarette ads are and how they appear in a lot of different places where a lot of people see them. I started a search on the internet and came across a lot of cigarette ads and one of them grabbed my attention the most.
This ad grabbed my attention by the giant cigarette hanging from the ceiling. At first glance, it becomes difficult to realize what is going on and it doesn’t necessarily look like a ciagrette. The giant cigarette is hanging on the ceiling placed in what seems to be a gym. There are big bold words that say “Fight Smoking.” I find it very important to live a healthy lifestyle so working out in a gym is one way to achieve that. A giant punching bag hanging in the middle of a gym where many people work out is a great way to get the attention of people who may smoke or who take strides to fight smoking advertisements. In the background of where the giant cigarette is are red punching gloves hanging from a bar. The red punching gloves signify that anyone is welcome to use them to work out and punch the giant cigarette. It may also signify that it is open for anyone to use and the reason they are hanging there is because nobody has used them. The red gloves are also the same color as the giant sign that says “Fight Smoking.” Perhaps, the gloves and the sign are supposed to relate in color so that people associate the gloves to punching the big giant cigarette. The red sign pops out at you, but not as soon as the big giant cigarette. After you look at the cigarette and move your focus to the red sign, then you can associate the red gloves to the red sign. It kind of puts the thoughts in your head like if you beat this cigarette as hard and as much as you can then you can “fight smoking.” On the other hand, it might do just the opposite and not associate punching this cigarette as a way to stop smoking.
There is a weight machine with several pulley’s hanging down from it. The weight machine is very tall and the giant cigarette punching bag is right next to it. It shows just how large it is, expanding from the ceiling all of the way to the ground. Generally weight machines extend all the way from the ground and to the ceiling. By placing the punching bag next to the weight machine, it shows just how big the punching bag is.
The enormous size of the punching bag can signify just how important beating smoking can be. Since the cigarette is much much larger than an actual cigarette, it can signify that smoking can be a bigger deal than what some people may think it is. In the big picture, there is a fan to the right of the weight machine and it appears that it is running. The fan may signify that someone was working out and that by having a fan running, it will cool people off who were working out.
Looking at the background of the image is a mirror behind the weight machine which shows there is more work out machines in the gym. To the right of the giant punching bag are two smaller pictures followed with small text on the bottom of those pictures. The first picture on the right hand side shows a close up of a sign posted by the machine with the giant cigarette punching bag. The sign is titled “Fight Smoking” in large white writing with a red background. Behind the sign, all of the walls are white and all of the machines are white. The red sign with bright, bold writing that definitely stands out and shows a clear message to start fighting smoking.
The second picture on the right side of the large photo says “Fight Smoking.” It is a close up of the picture on the top of it. On the bottom right hand side of that picture there is a logo that says “Champ.” Champ is a word that is associated with winning and achieving goals that can be associated with working out in a gym or in anything in life. Perhaps, by fighting smoking everyone that smokes can become a champ in his or her life, and can fight the battle of addiction and cigarette smoking. On the bottom of that picture, there is a small sentence that you cannot read at all because of its size. There is not a lot of writing on the advertisement other than the small print under the pictures on the right hand side. It is very hard to read and I think it is intended to not be read. All of the other images on the advertisement are large and focused on the same object of “fighting smoking.”
I find it to be very interesting that the largest picture on the ad is a picture of a giant cigarette punching bag and then as you move your focus to the right on the top it is a close up picture of the top of the weight machine. Moving down under that image, there is a close up image of that picture. The ad grabs your attention by focusing on what is really important by magnifying the image three times. In the giant picture, you don’t really notice the red sign because it is hidden behind the giant cigarette punching bag. As you analyze the ad and look around, you realize that the message of the picture is not the giant punching bag but rather the message to “fight smoking.” The giant punching bag is simply an image that draws in the attention of the consumer.
In many ads there are people associated with what is being advertised. In this ad, there is no human being seen in the picture. It is hard to think that if there is a gym with a great size, that there is nobody working out in it. Perhaps the empty gym shows that nobody needs to use a giant punching bag to stop smoking. It may also signify that people don’t need the strength to fight smoking by somebody else telling them, they just need to do it whenever they want and that is if they ever want to stop smoking. The choice of smoking or not smoking belongs to the person performing that habit.