Spoof Advertisement
For the initial portion of this assignment, I had to select an advertisement and expound on the hidden persuasion contained within. I chose a 1952 Camel cigarette advertisement to explain the social and emotional manipulation perpetrated by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. Furthermore, I exposed a significant yet invisible compositional triangle that used colors and angles. The red color of the word Camels is the most noticeable area of the page, followed by the yellow package of the Camel cigarette box. The tilt of the box and pyramid of the cigarettes points to the doctor holding the cigarette. The angle of his arm with cigarette points back to the word Camels. With the misguiding statement, "More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette," I had to create a spoof advertisement to challenge the old notion of doctor infallibility and how product purchases are engineered by advertising and marketing companies.
For the secondary portion of this assignment, I created an ad for a fictious cigarette brand, Dr. K-Cigs, to highlight and publicize hidden persuasion in advertising. The overall design of the ad has a very similar layout to the 1952 Camel cigarette ad. The name of the cigarettes is in red, the cigarette box is yellow, the tilt of the cigarette placed in the mouth of Dr. Kevorkian points to the name of the cigarette brand. Additionally, the general text takes several cues from the original text (the word cool, along with the phrases take this sensible test and the doctor's choice), and the images of well known celebrities smoking.
The differences are many to ensure a facetious tone: 1) Dr. Kevorkian was chosen as an ironic doctor to lend infamy to smoking. Although he did not smoke, and the picture of him is his mug shot with a cigarette I placed in his mouth, he was selected due to his notoriety as Dr. Death for enabling euthanasia; 2) The nicotine in cigarettes is known to be addicting, and after a 30 day test, it will be extremely difficult to stop; 3) All the celebrities pictured died from smoking; 4) The quote below Dr. Kevorkian's picture is concocted by me to show support by another doctor who was found guilty of being a serial killer- Dr. Harold Shipman; 5) The font of Dr. Kevorkian and Dr K-Cigs is Showcard Gothic. It reminds me of the old horror movie fonts, and was used due to the horrors cigarettes can cause with disease and death.
Most cigarette companies knew in the 1950s that their product caused addiction and cancer, yet they obscured the scientific studies to continue earning millions of dollars. R.J. Reynolds is guilty of manipulating the American public into purchasing a deadly product. As the originator of Camel cigarettes in 1913, the brand has some infamous records: the most cigarettes sold in one year- 105 billion in 1952; in 1978 Camel cigarettes hit three trillion sticks sold (Los Angeles Times).
I chose this advertisement for the visible and hidden persuasive tactics. First, the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company that produces Camel cigarettes has used the respect and authority the general populace gives to doctors as a means of indirectly saying that these cigarettes are safe/harmless to your health. If a doctor who has several years in studying human anatomy and physiology smokes these coffin nails, then you should be okay to smoke them too.
The second manipulation with this advertisement is that the nationwide survey mentioned had likely asked two questions, the second which we already know- what cigarette do you smoke? The first would have been do you smoke? I am curious as to what percentage of doctors recommended smoking. I must mention that my mom was very stressed as a young adult (early 20s), and she visited the doctor for help. Her doctor actually recommended smoking to calm her nerves! I don't know if doctors were misinformed then or there wasn't enough studies completed on the impacts of long term smoking.
The third manipulation was using well-known "spokesmen" in their advertising to prove their popularity. The psychology of fitting in with the flock, or wanting to be just like X, is a social phenomenon we have as humans. If I do what they do, people will like me and want to spend time with me. I understand it, and honestly do it myself (but in this case I don't smoke). The sad thing is, two out of three of the individuals listed, Dick Haymes and Ralph Bellamy, likely died due to smoking. Haymes died of lung cancer and Bellamy died from a lung ailment. Additionally, the fourth manipulation was outlined above in my introduction.
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Citation
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Proctor, Robert, N. “Camels: 100 years and still killing.” Los Angeles Times, 20 Oct 2013, https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-1020-proctor-camels-cigarettes-20131020-story.html. Accessed Oct 23, 2022.
David Bowie photo by Herb Ritts– https://artsy.net/artwork/herb-ritts-david-bowie-i-1
George Harrison photo archived by Otto Bettmann- https://photos.com/featured/george-harrison-playing-guitar-bettmann.html
Humphrey Bogart photo by R. Mitchell– https://photos.com/featured/humphrey-bogart-r-mitchell.html
Jesse Owens photo from a White Owl advertisement - https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/outrageous-vintage-cigarette-ads/14/
Clip art skull smoking cigarette– Image by PCH.Vector on Freepik-