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Darcel Bishop

Dr. Branch

English 101

3/21/2019

Anti-Smoking Ad

Why is it that nearly 20 percent of U.S. adults smoke cigarettes? It is the number one

cause of death that can be easily avoided. Occasionally anti-smoking advertisements are shown

in commercials and store windows through our society, often showing tobacco’s harmful effects

through graphic or other startling images. The advertisement picked is a black and white picture

showing a young man smoking a cigarette with a gun pointed at his head forming the smoke

from it. The words “kill a cigarette, save a life. Yours” appear off to the side. The advertisement

uses through its images and implied meanings the three rhetorical appeals of logos, ethos and

pathos. By doing so, the image can convey a vivid sense of danger and foster awareness of

smoking’s deadliness.

The image was created to evoke an audience response in both smokers and non-smokers

alike. The image will increase smokers’ distaste in it while leaving nonsmokers with negative

health effects and, them being unconcerned with it having little or no impact on them or their

lives. The audience to which it would most appeal to is the people who oppose cigarettes and

smoking strongly. People who oppose smoking may think anti-smoking ads will reach smokers

and persuade them to quit somehow, but this is probably not the case. The image will be a

reminder to smokers of the harm they do to their bodies. But nonsmokers are likely to be

indifferent to the image for the most part because they already know its bad for their health, and
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they will continue to smoke because they are either addicted or just unmoved by it. They may

even find ads like this annoying and unoriginal because they feel like they are repetitive and a

personal attack on them and their views and habits.

This image uses the first rhetorical appeal, logos. The main assumption is that smoking is

bad for health. This is general knowledge in many modern countries. When asked, nearly many

people would say the same thing. This is particularly true in North American culture, because

smoking is generally regarded as harmful and negative, unlike in past decades, where smoking

was accepted and even encouraged across society. The minor assumption is that smoking is

equivalent to pointing a weapon at one’s own head. This is shown by the cigarette smoke that

forms a handgun at the head of the young man. it can infer from the general knowledge of the

harmful cigarettes and the picture of the gun that the claim made by the creator of the image is

that smoking is suicidal. The caption on the picture “kill a cigarette, save a life. Yours.” enhance

this claim by encouraging people who smoke to put their cigarettes out. This means that if

smokers continue to pollute their lungs, it’s the same as if they pulled an invisible trigger on

themselves.

The second rhetorical attraction, ethos, also affects the message of the image. Kelly

Ashcraft, the creator of the image, is not a prominent photographer in society, and is probably

only known only to friends, close networks, and internet people who happen to look at her work.

However, through this image, the audience can conclude several things about her character and

credibility. In view of her decision to create an anti-smoking image, the audience can infer that

Ashcraft is trying to promote a healthy lifestyle in viewers. However, it often paints the creator
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with sinister smoking images like hers as thinking negatively about smokers as people, not just

the smoking aspect of their lives. At least this seems to be the case for smokers. Nonsmokers

who oppose the use of cigarettes will most closely connect with this image because they and

Ashcraft have similar attitudes to this particular issue. Nonsmokers may find her work more

credible than smokers because they agree with the message more seriously. Because Ashcraft is

not well known, it is difficult to know how credible she is, but what helps is the originality and

creativity of her work. Her attitude towards smoking parallels the view of modern day-America

towards smoking: it is incredibly harmful to the health of a person, it can lead to death, and it

also conveys a subtle negative view of people who smoke cigarettes. Because Ashcraft and the

U.S. look down on smokers because it is considered “bad” nowadays, she loses some credibility

because the image appears to be very negative and one sided, and it seems to scold smokers

instead of trying to help them. On the side of the ad, the words don’t contribute so much to the

image, and doesn’t help Ashcraft very much. Had she moved the word “Yours” down and below

the previous line, the words might have been more effective, the image wouldn’t be as moving,

though, without any words.

This image of the man with the cigarette smoke gun pointing at his head uses ethos,

logos, and pathos through the controversial message and coloring. Although weakened by its

prejudice and ineffective placement of words, Ashcrafts’ image still proves its point in the

simple message that smoking is dangerous to one’s health. Smoking is widespread worldwide,

but anti – smoking advertisements are the same. This view of disagreement is the fuel of the

constant struggle between smokers and the media.

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Work Cited:

“CDC's Anti-Smoking Ad Campaign Spurred Over 100,000 Smokers to Quit; Media Campaigns
Must Be Expanded Nationally and in the States.” Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, 16 Nov.
2018, www.tobaccofreekids.org/press-releases/2013_09_09_cdc.