Visual Rhetoric, Draft 1

Meisha Bochicchio

Jin Liu

English 103 section 33

29 January 2008

“The Real Truth About Tobacco”

What are some things that come to mind when you think about cigarettes? Tobacco. Smoke. Cancer. Perhaps even death. All of these things have negative connotations and, although not as taboo as it used to be, smoking is still a highly controversial subject. The campaign against smoking released a series of commercials to inform people about the dangers of smoking, and I have chosen one of them for my analysis.

The commercial opens with a table full of colorful bottles with different chemical labels on them and the words “outside a major tobacco company” flash on the lower section of the screen. Two young adult males begin having a conversation about the ingredients of cigarettes and begin to talk about the idea that tobacco companies are just using “tough love” and that they actually love and care about their customers. At the very end of the song sequence, the two males look at each other and one says, “wait a minute, that makes no sense”, and we see the big picture of how the commercial is making fun of that idea and informing the public of an important issue at the same time. The campaign against smoking cleverly uses a combination of rhetorical strategies and music in an effort to relay the message to the public about the dangerous contents of cigarettes and even goes as far as ironically insinuating that the tobacco companies show compassion towards their customer base.

The first thing one might notice about this commercial is that it uses a combination of rhetorical arguments. The most obvious argument applied is narration. The commercial itself is telling a story about how the product in question, cigarettes, can affect the consumer. The opening scene of the table full of chemicals shows people what deadly ingredients are really in cigarettes and may make people think twice before smoking. Also, the song and dance followed by the response of “wait, that makes no sense” forces the consumer to analyze the commercial even further. In other words, once the commercial is over, one would put together the thought of a tobacco company caring about consumers and the phrase “makes no sense” and would figure out that tobacco companies actually do not care about the consumers at all, further illustrating the dangers of smoking.

Another obvious rhetorical argument employed that one might notice about this commercial is that it is clearly an illustration showing the negative effects of smoking. The opening scene with all of the dangerous chemicals shows the consumers a visual image of all of the ingredients included in cigarettes. Even though a person might not know what the chemicals are, actually seeing them on a table might make one actually stop and think about all of the damaging things they are exposing themselves to and the negative impact it has on their health. Also, the visual image of the men in the skeleton costumes is a frighteningly accurate illustration of the reality that smoking can lead to death.

This ad also cleverly used a combination of rhetorical appeals to persuade consumers not to smoke. The first appeal used is logos. Although the most obvious rhetorical appeal, it is nonetheless effective. The very first thing we see when the commercial comes on is a table of colorful bottles labeled with an array of different chemicals, including arsenic and cyanide. We then learn that those are all chemicals that are included in cigarettes. Now, logically no one would intentionally consume dangerous chemicals. It brings light to the fact that cigarettes are loaded with those chemicals and that information may be incentive for people not to smoke cigarettes. Also appealing to logos is the entire idea of “tough love” that completely contradicts the idea that tobacco companies care about their constituents. If the companies did in fact care about the consumers of their products, they would obviously not put so many harmful chemicals into their product.

The song and dance sequence appeals to emotion, a person’s pathos. The song is very upbeat and happy, putting the viewer in a good mood. The actors are dancing and cartoon angels pop up around them and join in the celebration. Then, as the song nears the conclusion, they rip off their clothes revealing skeleton costumes, and the actor states, “wait, that makes no sense”. That immediately shifts the mood from carefree and jovial to a more serious and non-comical situation. The viewer is forced to think about everything the commercial has just presented and realizes the seriousness of the information presented. This approach can almost be seen as a scare tactic, as it boldly presents the visual image of death. It also gives tobacco companies a very bad image in that the commercial mocks them and beats the idea that they do not care about the consumers into the public’s heads.

Another very effective use of pathos is seen towards the end of the commercial. While the actors are in the middle of the dance sequence, the camera spans and shows random flashes of people’s reactions. All of the people that are shown are making horrible faces. This is obviously a use of an emotional appeal, because as the viewer sees those negative reactions, they immediately associate those same emotions with cigarettes, which in turn might yield the results that the campaign against smoking wants, which is to deter smoking.

The fact that the commercial is sponsored by the campaign against smoking is a very clever use of ethos. That is, it uses the solid reputation of this company in order to back up the information presented in the commercial and strengthen the argument against smoking. The ad presents the idea that the tobacco companies “love” their customers and, even though cigarettes are highly detrimental to one’s health, the companies are just using “tough love”. The commercial mocks this and completely makes fun of that idea with the song. It further mocks these companies by the introduction of the buff, male, business-man type cartoon characters that appear during the song. This exaggerated use of ethos in mocking the tobacco companies is actually the use of parody, and is highly effective in giving the companies a negative image.

Another important aspect of this commercial is the entire layout and sequence of events. The creators used very specific cannons of rhetoric to persuade the audience towards non-smoking. First, the very idea of the commercial is extremely well thought out. The entire commercial focuses on the idea that tobacco companies do not care about their customers. The entire arrangement of the commercial is also very well though out. At the very beginning, when the words “outside of a major tobacco company” flash on the bottom of the screen, we realize that they are deliberately filming this commercial outside of a tobacco company, insinuating that they are fully aware of what is going on and still do not care. That further strengthens the campaign’s argument that tobacco companies do not care about their consumers. Then the arrangement evolves into a song and dance sequence and finishes with the clever line of “wait, that makes no sense” that makes the audience rethink the entire commercial. The style and delivery are also very effective in that they relay an important message in a way that not only makes people think twice about smoking, but also manages to do so in a manner that is not incredibly obvious. It utilizes all three rhetorical appeals to somewhat disguise the intent of the commercial.