Katie Hurst
The Effect of Infecting Truth
We’ve seen the countless commercials and billboards. We’ve heard the staggering statistics. All of these anti-tobacco campaigns seem to conform to one another, all delivering their message in the same way. These repetitive attempts at targeting tobacco companies all seem to run together to form the one big boring message that we have all heard a million times: don’t smoke cigarettes. The Truth campaign took a different route to warn Americans about the hazards of smoking. Commercials have the advantage of movement over any sort of still ad. One very successful attempt at this feat was the “You Don’t Always Die from Tobacco” commercial. This television commercial revamps the average anti-tobacco commercial by delivering it in an entirely different way through the use of numerous rhetorical strategies, such as rhetorical appeals and canons, which make for an unusually more effective message.
The commercial begins with the hustle and bustle of Manhattan, the city capital of the world. The camera pans over to reveal a man dressed in traditional cowboy attire riding on a horse. A smaller man is walking in front of the horse, also dressed as a cowboy. There is a campfire lit on the street with a lot of smoke coming out from it. The two men sit down with a guitar and prepare for their performance, while a crowd forms around the two men. One of the men removes the bandana that has been tied around his throat, revealing a hole in his neck. He puts a microphone up to his neck and sings to the guitar playing of the other cowboy. The lyrics are “You don’t always die from tobacco; sometimes you just lose a lung. Oh, you don’t always die from tobacco; sometimes they just snip out your tongue. And you won’t sing worth a heck with a big hole in your neck. ‘Cause you don’t always die from tobacco.” All the while, this cowboy’s voice is generated by a voice box, probably due to throat cancer caused by smoking cigarettes. His voice is completely monotone the whole time, until the last line when the guitar player chimes in with his upbeat and fluctuating voice tones. The audience clearly did not expect this. Their faces reveal emotions of shock and horror, as opposed to their previous excitement. Pictures are being taken. A sign on the nearby horse reads “Over 8.5 million Americans live with tobacco related illnesses.” The last voice we hear is the monotone voice box saying “Yippie-Chi-O.” The campaign’s motto ensues: Knowledge is contagious. Infect Truth.
The setting of the commercial plays a big part in its strategy. The commercial’s subject, two country-western cowboys, and the commercial’s setting, New York City, are polar opposites. This causes the two men to attract attention very easily. This shows how something so trifling, such as two men playing dress-up, can catch everyone’s attention, but something as imperative as the tobacco epidemic can go unnoticed. Bystanders in this commercial stop in their tracks to stare at the cowboys riding down the street. A crowd slowly starts to assimilate around the two men and the horse. People from New York City are known for always being in a hurry with things to do and places to go, yet all it takes is something unusual such as two men dressed as cowboys for them to gather around. The strategy of comparison-contrast is being used to show how big the gap is in Americans’ level of interest in different current issues. This is the Truth campaign’s message to us, telling us to wake up and smell the cigarettes, and consequently realize what the main case in point is.
A small detail is that of the campfire burning in the middle of the sidewalk. It only flashes into the camera for a few short seconds, but its meaning is much greater than that. If examined closely, it is obvious that there are masses of smoke coming out of this fire. The rhetorical strategy of analogy is being used. This smoke speaks as a symbol of the many people who use tobacco products every day. Just like someone would look past a fire, someone would look past a person smoking a cigarette. This commercial is telling us to wake up and “infect truth,” that is, the truth about tobacco.
When the man sits down to start his performance, he is wearing a bandana around his neck. He removes it to reveal a gaping hole in his throat. The anticipating crowd clearly did not expect this. The camera pans over to show the previously enthused crowd that has now turned horror-stricken. Jaws drop, but they stay to see what this is all about. It is all about curiosity; curiosity killed the cat, or in this case, smoking killed the smoker. This is when the emotions of the bystanders and also the commercial viewers come into play. The rhetorical appeal of pathos, or appeal to emotion, is depicted. There are both feelings of sympathy and disgust in every person, both from the audience at the scene and the viewers experiencing the commercial through the television. The fact that the microphone has to be held to his throat amplifies the feelings of pathos in the viewers.
Now we come to the actual song itself, which is the most important and influential part of the commercial. As read in the lyrics, it is obvious that the tone of the song is a bit sarcastic. By saying that you don’t always die from tobacco, it is implying two things. First, that tobacco does indeed kill people who smoke. Second, that there are worse things to come even if a smoker doesn’t die of lung or throat cancer. The commercial producers are using invention, one of the canons of rhetoric. Invention is the generating of new ideas (Alfano 2007). The way the Truth campaign delivers its message is unique and unlike anything we’ve ever seen. Up until now, there had only been boring anti-tobacco ads with facts and statistics that are supposed to convince a viewer to spread the word of escalating tobacco risks. The word “just” is used multiple times in the song. Sometimes you “just” lose a lung? Any sane person realizes that losing a lung would be a severe detriment to the well-being of a human.
The fact that the entire song is monotone and produced by a machine in the man’s throat shows just how severe the consequences of using tobacco products are. The man’s voice is dead, and therefore the man himself seems dead. This uses a rhetorical strategy of example or illustration. This is an illustration of what smoking can amount to. This man never expected to have a gaping hole in his neck. I’m sure he never even imagined that smoking would affect his health whatsoever. For the last line of the song, the man who is playing guitar chimes in. He is the sole singer of the last line, and his voice is noticeably different from the throat cancer victim’s voice. The other man’s voice is able to fluctuate freely, making for a more appealing tone. By listening to this last line, we know that man is alive and well. This puts more emphasis on the illness of the other cowboy and is an analogy between the two men. Their voices represent who they are as people: one cancer victim and one happy and healthy man.
A staggering statistic is then revealed on a sign attached to the horse. It reads “Over 8.5 million Americans live with tobacco related illnesses.” This uses the rhetorical appeal of logos, or appeal to logic. This gives the viewers reason to believe that what they are seeing is real and unfiltered. It is truth, no strings attached. The last frame shows an orange screen with the words “Knowledge is contagious. Infect Truth.” The words “contagious” and “infect” refer to just exactly what the campaign is trying to warn you about. These two words have connotations of disease and illness, or what the result of smoking cigarettes is. This makes for an excellent slogan, telling others to spread the word of the dangers of tobacco products through “infection.”
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