http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZ-OjppQGi4
This commercial is an anti-smoking advertisement that shows factual statistics about the effects smoking has on people. It's a scary thought that smoking affects billions of people around the world and that one-seventh of deaths in the 21st centruy will be linked to smoking. Some questions to think about after viewing this clip are: What affect do the scrolling numbers have on the viewers? Are they meant to symbolize the shock that is associated with the mass number of people that smoking affects? Why do you think the creator has the video going in a time lapse compared to just showing a normal video? How do the background colors and symbols promote the message about the harmful effects smoking has on oneself? Do you think that if the ad showed graphic photos of smokers, the message would have a better persuasion for people to stop smoking? Why or why not?
Prompt 5: Although there are only a few comments on this video on youtube, they bring up an interesting point. One of the viewers asked "If the video is about smoking why are there just a bunch of time-lapse videos of cars?" The original poster replied that the time-lapses are paired with the facts about how cigarettes can kill you over "time." Also that the amount of cars represents all the people affected by smoking. In a sense the producer of the clip wanted to cover all demographics instead of just one. The authors of these posts seemed to be truly interested in the content of the clip and had nothing negative to say about the advertisement in question. I believe from the other posts that many of the viewers where students like ourselves interested in the representation of the commercial rather than the affects of drugs. In the posts no one had any arguments over the content of the commercials which I found surprising. Does anyone have an idea about why this video would attract less argument compared to many of the other videos seen in class? It covers the same topic they just have a different way of distributing the information. I appreciated this video because it dealt more with the facts rather than shock value.
ReplyDeleteEricka, I think that the reason why there is not a lot of arguement over this commercial is because of the amount of facts during the video. Unless someone was able to provide evidence that the facts presented by the creators are incorrect, I think that there is not much to argue about. Statistics are sometimes impossible to argue because the lack of knowledge by the audience prevents them from being able to argue about the topic. I agree with you that it feels better from an emotional standpoint that there is not a much shock as some other commercials we have seen.
DeletePrompt 7: This commercial uses statistics to scare the audience from smoking. But at the same time, some of these statistics seem a bit unreal. Every 8 seconds someone dies from smoking? Really? Where are they getting this data from?
ReplyDeleteReading the handful of comments provided on YouTube, I do believe that this commercial affects people’s opinions on smoking, by showing large numbers of people. As the poster (the one who posted it) said, the showing of large cities at night with many cars passing through represents the great numbers of people there are, and the great numbers of those who die from smoking.
Rather than using disgusting images of deformed individuals who are maimed from smoking cigarettes, this commercial decides to use numbers and data.
Garrett, I agree with you about the fact that the statistics seem a bit unreal. I was also wondering where the makers of this commercial were able to get such data and what kind of studies they had to perform. Ericka, the reason I think this commercial attracts less of an argument than other anti-smoking commercials is the fact that this ad does not show any graphic images that invoke fear as other smoking ads do.
DeleteI agree, to an extent, with Garrett here in that the ad does effectively convey the message to its audience and gets an emotional response similar to that of an ad with such graphic images. It seems like every smoking ad these days has the same basic theme of using images of smokers or the effects of smoking to base its argument, however this picture has no such imagery, separating it from the rest and perhaps getting a better response from the viewers who would otherwise tune it out
DeleteI thought it was very interesting that they were able to get a significant shock value without showing any disturbing or eye catching video and used numbers instead. The ability of them to this was very powerful because they weren't shocking people with images they were actually shocking people with the facts.
ReplyDeleteThe commercial was able to make a point about the dangers of smoking without actually showing anything. The video starts out with some cars moving at a normal speed on the expressway, at the end of the video there were more cars and moving in fast forward. This could have been done to show over the years how more and more people have begun to smoke, so the cars are actually representing the people that have started smoking. The reason behind them picking up speed could have been done to show that they are taking years off of their life by speeding up time. Also, the video started with one person in the sun, then over the course of the video more "people" began appearing, but at the end of the video it was barren and dark. When the ad started talking about making the right decision the picture started brightening up.
ReplyDeleteAt the very end of the commercial, it shows a beach that is dark and foggy. A different take on this is that beach water is slowly getting more and more polluted. This is similar to what happens to someone's body when they smoke. They may not notice the differences at first because it is so gradual, but before they know it, their organs and bodies are just as polluated as this water.
ReplyDelete