This week during class a major topic that was touched on was positivism- the theory that scientific knowledge is the only valid evidence. The first add campaign that came to my mind was the Truth commercials. These commercials literally show the viewer the outcome of tobacco use by using scientific facts to prevent and stop the continuation of smoking cigarettes. I found it fascinating to compare a cigarette advertisement from the 1950s with a Truth advertisement to see the change of American ideology towards smoking. http://www.designgonewild.com/img/content2008/tipalet-cigarette-ad.jpg
In the 1950’s advertisement a beautiful woman is lured by the man’s cigarette smoke. The caption at the bottom simply states, “Blow in her face and she’ll follow you anywhere.” With a caption like that what male would not want to buy a pack of cigarettes? The sexual connotation tries to market cigarettes towards younger men by insinuation that women love the smell of cigarette smoke. Since the 1950’s Americans have been shown the harmful effects of tobacco and yet continue to smoke. As social acceptance and scientific evidence changed, anti- smoking became a much more common trend in advertising. The Truth commercials take on a new approach to show how harmful cigarette smoke is, by using statistics. I think that what make the Truth commercials so effective are the shocking scenarios that are shown to reflect the lethal effects of smoking. By using the thought process of Bathes, it is obvious the commercial indicates the signifiers are the 1200 body bags and the signified are the tobacco companies. As a final result the sign is that tobacco kills 1200 people every day. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4xmFcrJexk
