Words: 680
Advertising has played a major role in human society, which often appears in every corner of the streets. Most of them have efficient effects on the progress of human reactions. Some are trying to convince consumers to buy the products. Some advertisements are existed with the purpose to persuade and educate viewers of particular knowledge. Further more, advertisers also utilize countless means to attract viewers’ attention, such as sexuality, celebrity, fantasy, and creativity. Comedy is also being used as a magnet to alert people of the advertisement.
For example, an ad of the Indian Cancer Society has successfully applied the humor tone on male sexual organ as the consequence of smoking. It is a simple picture which is constructed with three major images. The image of a cigarette appears vividly behind a dark background. As we look carefully, we notice that the cigarette on the right side is wrinkled and bended downward in a way that almost means useless, unfunctional. In the center of the advertisement, a little text is saying “With a cigarette in my hand, I only felt like a man. ” The word “only” is seen as an addition to the sentence that changes both the meaning and the tone of it.
It mostly implies that men are being aimed as targets of this ad. The third part of this whole poster is the logo of the Indian Cancer Society in the right corner. The Indian Cancer Society is an organization that its main purposes are to educate the community about different kinds of cancers and to create programs and projects to prevent cancers from spreading widely. Most of the advertisements around the neighborhood have attractive and gorgeous looking women showing their bodies as an eye-catching point to viewers. There are fewer posters with pictures of undressed or haft naked men.
In the perspective of the society where men usually receive a higher status, they represent authority, dignity, freedom, and superiority. It is considered that men would be less powerful as they had fewer clothes on. However, this ad used the opposite tactic as the most important point to achieve the purpose, which is convincing people not to smoke and lay their hands on it. It is a great simile of comparing the cigarette to men, especially the private part of a male body, sexual organ. It is a sexual pun using a crumpled and crooked cigarette as a signifier.
The image is signified with the connotative meaning of suppressing the position of men in this community. They would be more inferior if they found themselves castrated or unproductive. This advertisement is successful in the way of using the image of a bended cigarette to direct the attention to males. Mostly men consume more cigarettes than women do. They are more likely the targets regard of the feeling of being confident and powerful that smoking could possibly offer. By using that image, viewers, especially male viewers, would be aware of the effect that smoking can cause.
Nicotine is a substance that is found in tobacco plant. An average cigarette yields about 1 mg of absorbed nicotine, which has a great affect on the private part of the male. It leads to lack of blood flow in the pennies resulting in erectile dysfunction. Nicotine also results in low sperm count. On top of that, there are serious psychological issues following. Being unfunctional seems to be the “epitome of loss” and the “ultimate humiliation,” Generally, with that condition; they would feel more embarrassed and nervous.
Further more, they would have less confidence and self-esteem in socializing with the world outside, which would result a major psychological disorder. Advertising has more impacts on human than what is expected, although advertisers might use different tones to imply their meanings. For this particular ad, they successfully applied a comic tone to direct the problem and effect of smoking to male viewers. By using the cigarette as the best illustration of the most important thing to men, it would easily catch their attention.