How Tobacco Companies Advertise

How Tobacco Companies Advertise

The two cigarette advertisements analyzed in this paper are both well made and make the product look good. There are many different ways companies can make an advertisement more appealing to consumers. There are also many different groups of consumers that can be targeted. In order to create a successful ad there must be a combination of both of those things. These cigarette ads have a good layout and look appealing but the manner in which they target their audience and how they make their product are not entirely honest.

The first advertisement is for Camel Cigarettes. At the time this ad was being circulated their mascot was Joe Camel. The ad shows Joe Camel smoking a cigarette. He is wearing a nice suit and sunglasses and is sitting down with a saxophone in his lap. Behind him is a brick wall with a purple light shining on it. On that wall is a neon sign that says "Camel, Genuine Taste". It is intended to make the product, cigarettes, look good. The ad tries to make cigarette smokers look cool because Joe Camel seems to be in a type of jazz club or some hipster lounge. Joe Camel looks like he is having a good time and obviously is enjoying his lit cigarette because he is smiling. The colors in the ad set a calm and relaxed mood. It almost makes it seem like the consumer would be relaxed if he or she smoked a Camel cigarette. The neon Camel sign is lit up in bright yellow and orange, which contrasts with the purple background. This draws the target away from the opposite corner of the page where there is a Surgeon General's Warning which informs the consumer that smoking cigarettes is not healthy. Joe Camel's head and the Camel sign are slightly above the center of the advertisement. Dorothy Cohen in her article Elements of an Effective Layout says, "...The optical center is between one-tenth and one-third the distance above the mathematical horizontal center line." This way of balancing the layout subconsciously keeps the readers eyes away from the bottom corner of the page where the Surgeon General's Warning is located. This is a trick that the tobacco company will use to trick the reader into ignoring the fact that smoking does indeed have negative affects on a person's health. The advertisement does do it's job of making the product look attractive but it does it by deceiving the consumer and making it appear that there is nothing bad about smoking.

The second advertisement is for Newport Cigarettes. This ad shows two attractive adults at a club dancing with each other. Both people in the ad are smiling and seem to be having a good time. The woman is holding a lit cigarette in her hand. Below the image in big orange letters it says "Newport Pleasure, Fire it up!" The advertisement also shows three different types of Newport cigarettes, lights, mediums, and regulars. In the top corner of the advertisement is a Surgeon General's Warning. The advertisement attempts to keep the consumers eyes away from that warning because it will discourage customers from purchasing the product. They try to do this by having the woman in the picture staring out at the consumer. People viewing the ad will tend to look back and pay more attention to that part of the advertisement. The advertisement is also bordered with a bright green color and the writing is a bright orange color. The border provides a method of achieving unity (Cohen 277). These colors contrast and make the product name stick out. The two people enjoying themselves with a Newport cigarette makes the