Smoking Free

Long before Europeans arrived in North & South America five centuries ago, Native Americans were using tobacco for medical needs. But unlike the settlers, who learned to smoke and brought the practice back to Europe as a drug recreation, the native people consumed them as entheogen. Since the introduction of tobacco, the whole world had built a smoking culture around it. There are those who believe that done in moderation, smoking can enhance their allure, especially teenagers who want to look voguish, and hoping the practice would help them build self-confident. Smoking considered as a masculine habit had became a history, manufacturers are increasing marketing not only youngsters, the feminization of smoking occurred with the advent of fashion that appeal to women, who might see the use of these brands as a way to increase their sexual appeal. Tobacco, under human abuse, had ironically changed from the old-days helping tool into a modern killing machine. While I was in search of advertisements on different online web pages, I found two innovative and impressive ads both have outstanding ideas to persuade viewers not to smoke, though, targeting different audiences with different anti-smoking impacts.


One of the two ads is chosen from Foote Cone & Belding in Singapore who published a series of fashion spoofing anti-smoking works by famous photographer-Eryk Fitau. This advertising photograph shows a curled puffy red hair women lying against a cigarette-ash-like leaf-cover whom wear a red sleeve-less long night dress. She is as pale as the ashen leafs with a bunch of precious pearls tied around her neck. A tiny beauty spot reveals under her slightly unlocked lips, where her fine-looking cold face turned to her right arm loosely with the two spiritless eyes widely opened looking at nowhere. The mood is chill but artistically fascinates the viewers with its powerful color contrast and elegant tone. The main body of this model was positioned diagonally from the upper left to the bottom right with her left arm lying flat on top of her belly in 90 degrees, and her right arm stretching out in a triangle shape on the dry leafs, with her palm facing her face. The pose seems pretty natural, however, this pair of anemic hands were intentionally arrange with the bloody red dress in opposite directions, thus, forming a cross effect. In art, it is a successful strategy to create movement and built balance within the composition. Apparently, this upper-class woman is rich, appealing and trendy in her early to late twenties, who died from lung cancer. Under her head stated: "LUNG CANCER DOESN'T GO WITH CHRISTIAN DIOR", a large and bold slogan typed in black filling more than half the bottom left corner of the photo. Smoking has long treated as a popular culture as well as a social fashion. What this ad telling us is that we don't have to match with a cigarette to be modish. The publishers recognized the psychological tactic that most cigarette manufacturers are using to draw female smokers; moreover, they cleverly used this selling point to turn the gun back against smoking itself. From the visual point of view, this photo is definitely something you will see in a fashion magazine that marks a stunning impression. However, the entire photograph is very symbolic, no smoke or a signal cigarette can be found from the photo. Despite its purpose, the photographer shot this photo at a straight forward art basic; the letters are the most crucial element that ignites the meaningful inspiration. The designers avoid the direct use of negative words like "smoke", "bad", "kill" ect., instead, they pull out one of the most serious smoking-cause illness-"lung cancer"-in the first place, versus one of the most famous fashion brand-"Christian Dior", providing fact along with unexpected idea that surprise their target audiences (women who appeal to fashion). And the result is overwhelming.



Another interesting anti-smoking photograph I’m going to discuss is surprisingly plain and simple. There’re no nice-looking human model, no touching story telling, nor any special effects that caught you like the former one above. Only two objects and two words are included within the picture, plus a ponderous hard-stone background behide them, giving audiences a feel of documentary shot. The two bolded and white color words “Quick.” and “Slow.” are centered parallelly to each other along with a slim bullet compare to a regular size cigarette both pointing to the same direction horizontally. The word “Quick.” is place right below the bullet while “Slow.” is under the cigarette. Without any decorative explanation, the publishers send the warning undoubtedly clear to the smokers: a cigarette is just like a bullet, it can kill you, but only in a different speed. Obviously, this ad is trying to persuade people don’t smoke or stop smoking, but with a hugely different attitude than Eryk Fitau’s tasteful image. This old-fashion ad gives a pure contrast transmitting a meaningful truth, which targets more conservative and mature smokers in the common groups. It successfully stamps an indelible impression upon viewers’ mind- every time you pick up a cigarette and hold it between your lips, the bullet will pop up on the spot, and telling you: you are killing yourself.